Posts Tagged ‘work’

365great Day 33: dry erase boards

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
16 April 2013
1

Learn more about 365great here.

Dry erase boards are such a useful tool! It’s a great way to keep an ongoing list of things to do, groceries to buy, and other items that recur. Or, it’s just a fun way to doodle on a cool medium, then wipe it all away. Whatever you choose to do with it, they can be immensely useful since they’re reusable time and time again, unlike writing on paper. Plus, they wipe easily so you can truly start with a clean slate each time.

365great challenge day 33: dry erase boardsI found this awesome little Crayola board at Best Buy right when I was in need of a small dry erase board I could use at my desk! It was on sale and we had free money to use too, so I just had to get it. I love that this one uses crayons – how completely different from the markers I’m used to! These babies don’t smell and won’t wipe off accidentally, which are the two downsides to dry erase markers… which means they’re basically all pros, no cons! I love that the board is two-sided and in black or white. A black “white board” now that’s funny. 🙂 And for the practical purposes it serves in addition to the fun/cool/interesting factor, what isn’t great about a dry erase board?

365great Day 27: micro-entrepreneurism

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: , , , , ,
10 April 2013
1

Learn more about 365great here.

I’ve written about micro-entrepreneurism before and I’ll say it again: I love that new business models are popping up all over the place (on the web), empowering people to be small-time entrepreneurs. Whether you want to pet sit, run people’s errands, do freelance projects, give tours, rent out your space, teach a private lesson, or cook/bake for hire… there’s probably a site out there for you. What a great way to take your skill sets and/or passions and turn them into income-generating gigs! While it’s definitely challenging and takes a lot to be able to live off odd jobs like that, the experiences are extremely rewarding and satisfying. And hey, for most people, it’s just a nice way to supplement your income by doing what you’re good at.

365great challenge day 27: micro-entrepreneurismIn this picture I was demoing food at the Whole Foods in Westwood through my employer, Natural Selection Promotions. I really enjoyed that job since I requested shifts only when I wanted, had an everchanging work environment, and got to get out from behind a desk. At first it was a summer job and then it was an in-between job once I graduated college and was looking for work. I liked that I got to move around in the day, meet new people all the time, and only work when I decided to. The pay was pretty good and I even got extra food samples to keep much of the time! Since then, a far more robust industry has grown to allow people similar experiences. It’s easier than ever to take what you love or know and turn it into an income-generator. This sort of empowerment is truly great.

How to: Create A Facebook Page (original)

laelene Posted in how to guides，Tags: , , , , , , , ,
09 April 2013
104

pinnable quote image for how to create a facebook page blog post on maryqin.com

I decided it was time for me to create a Facebook page for my little blog, so I can really try to build it out and maybe get some followers! I’d like to think that what I’m putting out there is educating or entertaining someone, but I’ve never really promoted it so it’s time to take action.

When I went to create the FB page, I (for the life of me) could NOT find where to choose the “Personal Blog” category! And that’s what spurred this entry. Read on to learn the basics for setting up a Facebook page and how to select a category like “Personal Blog,” “Personal Website,” and more!

Creating Your Facebook Page

webpage to create a new facebook page First of all, here’s where you can create a new Facebook page. As you’ll see, right away they want you to choose a category. Your desired page may fit multiple categories, so it’s up to you to decide which one is best for your needs. Of the 6 types they’ve laid out for you (1. Local Business or Place; 2. Company, Organization or Institution; 3. Brand or Product; 4. Artist, Band or Public Figure; 5. Entertainment; 6. Cause or Community), all but the last one have a dropdown menu with category choices. Don’t worry if your desired category isn’t there – just pick what’s closest or tickles your fancy. In my case, I went for “Brand or Product”and chose “Website” from the dropdown.

You will be asked to enter your page name, which should be the title of your blog, the name of your business, or whatever you want the world to know your page by. Note that Facebook has certain rules in place about what is allowed in a name – for example, I tried to enter my blog name, ((little fat notebook)), but it was immediately rejected because I’m not allowed to use symbols. You are allowed one set of parentheses, but there can only be two words in it (like this) and obviously I’d have three if I went for (little fat notebook). Alas, I then tried just plain little fat notebook and that’s not allowed because the name must start with an uppercase! I didn’t like how Little fat notebook looked, so I went for the boring old Little Fat Notebook. Luckily, you can change it after the fact!

Setting Up Your Facebook Page

Once you agree to their terms and click Get Started, you’re prompted to fill in a description and add links to your site(s). Next upload an avatar/profile picture to represent your page. You’ll then be taken to your brand new Facebook page! A quick 3-step tour is given and then you’re given free reign. Feel free to add a cover photo, invite friends to like your page, and share your very first post!

screenshot of page to set up about section of new facebook page

Adding a basic description.

uploading profile picture to new facebook page

Uploading a profile picture.

Changing To A Better Category

dropdown menu to edit facebook page infoNow here’s what you’ve been waiting for: how to make the page exactly as you want it! At the top, you’ll see an option to Edit Page, with a dropdown. The first option is what you want: “Update Info.” Here you’ll see that the category and subcategory choices are far more plentiful than they let on earlier in the process! That’s where I found a previously unmentioned category called “Websites & Blogs,” which contains the subcategory option I had been hunting for: Personal Blog. The nice thing is that you can change this at any time, so as your site/brand evolves, you can update the category accordingly.

dropdown menu for facebook page categories

 

dropdown menu for facebook page subcategories

 

A few other tips:

Once you get 25 fans, you can reserve a vanity URL (or username, as Facebook calls it). This means that rather than an ugly URL like https://www.facebook.com/pages/little-fat-notebook/457453117668145, you can get a pretty one like https://www.facebook.com/littlefatnotebook, which is much easier to direct fans to. I still need to claim mine! (So hey if you don’t mind, please like my page so I can claim my vanity URL soon!) [Update: I was actually able to claim it when I had just 16 fans – check out my post on claiming vanity URLs to see how.]

When you reach 30 fans, Facebook will provide “insights” about your page, which includes data about the reach of your page and each post (how many people see it, pretty much), how many people are talking about (sharing) your posts, and how many posts you’re putting up daily.

Also note that I was able to update my page name from Little Fat Notebook to all lowercase. Unfortunately you still can’t add symbols, but as mentioned before, you can use one set of parentheses.

I highly recommend putting your website URL in the Short Description so users can easily click to your site from your FB page. Just be sure to input the “http://” so it becomes a clickable link, as shown. (Click for full size.)

screenshot of facebook page short description with embedded link

Now that you have a Facebook page, check out my tutorials on:
~how to manage your Facebook page
~how to link your social media accounts
~how to claim your vanity URLs, and more!

You can find all my “how to” posts for useful tips like how to make a favicon and random things like how to set your iPhone/iPad to stop playing music at a certain time or even how to win a Facebook contest!

If you have any questions or tips of your own, I’d love to hear them! Please do share. 🙂

Odd jobs

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
05 February 2013
0

Have you ever tried to get a bunch of odd jobs?  I just joined Fiverr and posted some “gigs” on the site yesterday in an attempt to get more traction for my sales, but also to see if I can get some extra income from doing random tasks.  For now the only thing I’ve come up with that doesn’t involved selling a product is teaching people origami.  I’ll have to keep thinking of what else I could do that’s worth $5 but not too much effort on my part.  I was going to do a Chinese name translation, but there are a lot of those out there so I’m not sure if I should compete…

Awhile back, I became fascinated with community marketplaces.  I had considered trying to become a TaskRabbit and provide services like pet-sitting, but I don’t really have a strong skill in those sorts of things that I could really do well.  It’s always a challenge trying to pinpoint my expertise in things like that – a concrete skill that I can do better than most that people would want to have done for them.  Then I came across Vayable, which I thought was really cool with its community-powered tours.  I have considered doing a UCLA tour through that, but have yet to organize an awesome tour that I would be proud of.  Luckily, I have a head start since I’d led tours for summer orientation, but I also want to include more cool historical facts and some updates since the campus has changed so much.

Most recently, I learned about Lyft, which is a community-powered transportation service.  That’s something I think would be really cool to do, since I’ve often driven my friends around, but I live too far from the central areas of Los Angeles to be of much use right now.  Such a pity, since I enjoy getting out and driving around (and hate finding parking) so this would be a great way to earn some money.

Positive change

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
03 January 2013
0

So far 2013 has been off to a strong start.  My overarching goal is to focus more.  That means fewer distractions that waste my time (like watching shows and playing games) and more effort towards making my dreams a reality.  To start with, I’ve been working on cutting out the useless parts of my life that have slowly taken over much of my time in the past couple of months.  I’m working on getting up every day at a regular time, getting some work and cleaning done, and eating and showering “on time” (kinda).

While it’s only been three days (what?!), I’m doing well; I’ve been productive each day and tidied up the house bit by bit.  I’ve gotten some work done for my websites and/or eBay each day whereas in previous weeks I probably would have put it off to another day.  Now when I think of something, I get to it right away, before I lose motivation or forget about it.  The same thing goes with household chores – instead of leaving things lying around, I’m picking them up, putting them away, and organizing as needed.

So far I’m feeling good about my motivation levels, which I was definitely struggling with more recently.  As I start to get used to this new, more healthy routine, I’m going to add more demanding goals, like really buckling down to decide what direction I want my professional development to go.  Part of this effort will involve reading some books for ideas and inspiration.  I had started to do that when I first left my job last year, but then it dwindled.  I think if I learn about how others made it work, I’ll feel better about my own prospects.  After all, every day we see successful businesses around us – why can’t one of those be run by me?

Celebrations & challenges

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
18 December 2012
0

Oh, 2012. It’s been quite a year.  There were a lot of highs and lows, ranging from glorious celebrations of love to frustrating work-related challenges.  The year started off normally, then started to dip as I didn’t find enough growth in my career.  So, I decided to quit my job and pursue my entrepreneurial dreams.  I then got a chance to attend my first wedding as an adult, watching my cousin get married in a lovely event.  From there, I began to work on my own ventures, with great highs of productivity and excitement and great lows of little motivation and progress.  What this new lifestyle did afford me was a lot of self-reflection, personal growth, and time with Panda.  What it hasn’t afforded me (yet) was the satisfaction of succeeding by “normal” measures.

It’s definitely been challenging and there seems to be a bit of an inverse relation between quality family time and substantial career growth.  While it’s been a strong year for family, it’s been a weak one for work.  I mean, we all know it’s hard to balance the demands of home and work, but I know it can be a better balance than I’ve managed thus far.  I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the time I get to have with my parents when they’re in town, with Panda when we’re together, and with my cousin who has come to study in the US.  However, I constantly feel judged for the lack of a job that I have and my whole “self-employed” status.  Granted, I haven’t been as motivated and hard-working as I could, but there’s a lot I did do that nobody really knows about.

I’m struggling a bit right now to find my way and figure out where to focus my efforts.  My eBay endeavors have reached a plateau and it doesn’t require as much upkeep anymore, so I need to decide what my next thing will be.  I did just get contacted by someone with an opportunity that could potentially lead to something rewarding, so we’ll see how that pans out.  In the mean time, I’ve been doing some work for Yuzen and should probably put some more time into that.  Now that it’s the end of the year and the holiday season is in full swing, I’m finding it hard to really plan too much more work for the rest of the year.  Between travel plans and birthday/holiday celebrations, I’ll probably be pretty busy.  That doesn’t mean I won’t be thinking and strategizing about the future the whole time!

Mounting pressures

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
05 December 2012
0

There sure are a lot of ups and downs with trying to run your own gig.  Sometimes it’s super rewarding and fun and sometimes I take things too personally and get sad that things aren’t perfect.  Lately I’ve been going through a rough patch again, grappling with what to focus on, how to grow things, and where to develop my skills.  Between self-doubt and perceived doubt from others, it’s been tough going.  One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur (besides trying to make it work) is the lack of understanding that you get.

Most people don’t quite get what it means when you don’t have a traditional job, work for yourself, or otherwise aren’t a part of the “normal” workforce.  They see you sitting at home all day, in front of the computer, and wonder if you’ve done anything at all.  For whatever reason, you apparently don’t amount to much if you’re not working 40 hours a week for a paycheck or going to school for certification or a degree.  At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten based on questions and feedback from some people lately.  While I don’t think they mean to judge, I feel judged – and that gives me pressure to get results, fast.

Unfortunately, that’s just not how it all works.  Here I am trying to build something, cultivate and grow it.  My little seed won’t magically become a beanstalk without a lot of love and care over time.  While it’s only been 8 months and in grand scheme of creating something, that’s chump change, it sure feels like a long time.  I think that’s partly due to all the change that has happened, which makes leaving my job feel like a lifetime ago.

It’s hard to stay patient, keep pushing, and not give up because there is no specific time frame at which I can determine whether this will or will not work.  Plus, for the time being I’m at it alone.  I don’t really have any support and nobody really knows what I’ve accomplished except for myself.  When I face a challenge, I don’t have coworkers to help me out or a manager to guide me.  While I’ve been seeking mentors for years, I just haven’t really found someone who has the expertise and time for me.  So how long do I keep trying?  There is no real answer; we’ll just have to see.  In the mean time, I’m trying to keep my spirits up and reinvigorate my enthusiasm.

Down time

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
05 November 2012
0

What do you think of when you hear work from home, self-employed, entrepreneur?  Do you imagine someone huddled over their laptop all day and all night, tapping away at those keys?  Do you imagine someone kicking back with a cool drink on a warm day, enjoying the sunshine?  Or maybe you think of someone lounging around in pajamas and slippers, cupping a steaming cup of coffee and a book.  Whatever the case, people usually consider working from home and working for yourself to be less stressful than a typical office job.

When I first started working from home, I imagined being able to enjoy myself no matter where I was (and being able to go anywhere no matter when it was).  For the most part, that has been true, but another thing that I’ve wrestled with is being able to set boundaries with my time.  I’ve enjoyed far more freedom in terms of where I am and when I work, but then it all blends together.  Lately I’ve found that I think so much about work that I even dream about it and disrupt my rest.  Without realizing it, stress has creeped up on me because I am the one responsible if things go wrong and I am the only one managing all that there is to take care of.  The pressure of that doesn’t seem so bad, yet here I am, needing a break.

In a way I feel guilty – my days are hardly ever as busy and fast-paced as my previous job, so I often feel like I’m not working hard enough.  However, just because I don’t have 9-10 hours filled with work and then a respite before it all starts again doesn’t mean that I’m working less hard.  As it turns out, the entire night and weekend concept no longer applies to me and any day, any time is work time.  Whether I’m home, out eating or shopping, or taking time off for social activities, work is just a few taps away (thank you phone apps).  So in that sense, I never get rest and I never get away from the looming work that follows me around.

This weekend, it finally caught up with me.  I’ve been so overwhelmed by the constant checklist of things to do for work that I just had to mentally check out for awhile.  So, for the past two days I hardly did anything for work and instead vegged out to a variety of random entertainment.  I buckled back up and got a bunch of work done today, but I’m still not ready to throw myself back into things again.  Perhaps I need to learn to set better boundaries so I periodic bouts of worklessness.  Harder said than done though!

Shipping headaches

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
31 October 2012
0

Written a week ago:

I had a down day today. Managing this whole eBay thing has started to wear on me as I move past the honeymoon phase and learn some of the not-so-pleasant aspects of being a seller. It started off great – listing and selling items was exciting and mailing out packages was fun. But now that I’ve sent out dozens of items, I find it increasingly challenging to manage inventory, get the right shipping products (particularly appropriate box sizes), and find a good balance between price and shipping speed/service.

Mostly it has to do with shipping woes. For the second time now, someone has contacted me saying they have not received their item after waiting nearly a month. In cases like this, I am so powerless yet I feel responsible. I want to help but should I have to replace or refund an item every time the post office or customs screws me over? While I appreciate the low prices I get with USPS, I feel like there’s no accountability for when items are lost, damaged, or stolen. I have no recourse and it is disheartening.

In a similar vein, I have no idea what customs offices might be doing with my shipments… are they holding them? Did they never receive them? Will my customer get their package soon, or at all? It’s so frustrating to not know and not be able to provide any comfort to the recipient patiently waiting for the delivery.  Additionally, I constantly worry about how much abuse my packages will suffer after finding out some of my items were crushed in transit.  How do I ensure that the items are well-protected yet don’t add so much weight to the packaging that shipping costs go up?  It’s a fine line to walk.

Now, with some time to think:

All of this has led me to an old idea I had a long time ago – wouldn’t it be nice to “rent” space in a suitcase or car that will be traveling from somewhere near you to a destination close to the one you want?  People are constantly covering so much ground and not taking advantage of all the space they have to bring things with them.  If we could tap into a network where travelers can offer up the extra space they have and shippers/mailers can then pay for that space, wouldn’t that be a great way to take advantage of the travel that’s already being done?  With the rise of community marketplaces, this seems more and more a sensible reality for the future.  If I can trust the listings on Airbnb, I can certainly find a way to create a similar level of trust for listings involving assisted shipping.

Granted, there are plenty of challenges to consider, especially when it comes to international shipping, but this is a problem I’d really like to help solve.  I can just imagine the powerful community that can be created around this, and with it a built-in level of service unlike that of many shipping services.  After all, each person signing up to help deliver items wants to maintain a pristine reputation or else they won’t get more opportunities to earn money.  We’d need to integrate some technologies to assist them in the tracking process, among other things, but I wonder if overall it’d be worth all the effort.  Would I really be able to drive down the price, yet provide optimal service?  I’d sure like to try.

Micro-entrepreneurism

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
24 October 2012
4

I’ve just spent a good 3-4 hours deep in the world of community marketplaces offering all kinds of awesome products and services, powered by the individual.  These sites are empowering people around the world to become part-time (or even full-time) entrepreneurs who get to choose what they do and when they do it.  It ranges from sites like TaskRabbit and Zaarly, which offer skill-based listings, to Vayable, which offers tour listings, to Airbnb, which offers accommodation listings.  Whatever the niche, the message is clear: personalized, personable services provided by your neighbors or that local in your destination city are on the rise.

Our society is seeing a shift away from “traditional” jobs and towards the more flexible, on your own terms type jobs that are a far cry from the salaried employee.  And those people clamoring for these unconventional/unpredictable job bookings find themselves serving a consumer that has evolved too.  It used to be that consumers had to go to the store and choose from whatever was available at the time, or customers had to sit through customer service calls before finally getting help.  Now it’s all about getting what you want when you want.  Who needs to sit through half an hour of automated phone menus when you can just hire the guy in your town to install that new TV?  Why go to the store and be forced to choose from food in flavors you don’t like when you can have someone come cook for you or bring you delicious baked goodies just the way you like?

It’s service to the max, because it’s customized for your needs.  On TaskRabbit and Zaarly, you can post exactly what, when, where, and how you want things done, then choose who to do it.  Or, for sellers, you can post exactly what and how you’ll do something, then determine the when and where with the “who” who’s booking you.  The great thing about these services is that it not only empowers people to make money for doing what they love and/or what they’re good at, but it offers a better experience for us as clients.  Get a tour of a city you’re visiting customized to your interests!  Discover that perfect room to stay in that’s closer to everything you want to see than any reasonable hotel option.  Let someone else handle the chores for once, so you can relax and take time to do what you love.  Meanwhile, the people doing this work find themselves more fulfilled AND with more money to line their pockets.  It’s a wonderful win-win situation.

Along those lines, I have a similar idea of connecting people with specific needs to those who can help fulfill them.  I’m still working on the details of the idea, but as far as I’ve seen there is no other service out there that completely addresses the issue.  I’m really excited to develop it further and hopefully I’ll be sharing it with the world sometime next year!  For now, you can use your imagination to try to guess what it might be… and hey, maybe you’ll come up with another brilliant (and viable) idea to take advantage of the power of community-powered marketplaces, where everybody’s a micro-entrepreneur!

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