Life of an Internet Entrepreneur

The OpenOffice.org project is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, which is the primary contributor of source code to the Project. Other major contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google.

Additionally, over 450,000 people from nearly every part of the globe have joined this benevolent Open-Source Project with the idea of creating the best possible office suite that everyone can use.

Cut Costs

In the current economy, the entrepreneurial spirit has been challenged in many new ways. Small businesses simply cannot afford to spend money on highly priced software programs, so out of this struggle and need the open-source software movement has begun.

When President Obama unveiled Cash For Clunkers, a government program to trade in old inefficient cars at dealerships in exchange for new efficient models, many people applauded the effort for its laudable goals:

• Lowering pollution in the air by having newer, cleaner emission cars taking the place of older cars with worse emissions
• Jump-starting the American auto industry, which had been selling so few cars that dealers, factories, and suppliers were shutting their doors.

If you’ve been paying attention to the media, you know that the long talked about recession is upon us. As gas and food prices rise, many consumers are left wondering how to adjust their budgets accordingly. Self-sufficiency skills, long seen as a thing of the past, are back in vogue.

I recently discussed how to recession-proof your career, and some readers asked what accompanying lifestyle changes they should make. Today, I’d like to recommend a few changes that the average consumer can make to help get through this recession without feeling too much of the strain.

Each year, I play a fun guessing game on which day(s) will be the biggest online selling days of the year. My “bet” for this year is going to be mid-day Dec. 12th -13. Why that particular day and a half? Allow me to explain:

Paycheck syndrome

In bad economies, we are less likely to have cash sitting around. This particular recession is no exception, and because this recession is partially caused by the credit crunch, we are certainly less likely to have cash. Therefore, we are more likely to spend based on our paycheck date. We are especially more likely to purchase something expensive near the time we are getting a paycheck (thursday evening) in anticipation of having the money, or when we have an actual paycheck in hand (friday).

Telecommuting to work, or working from home, is becoming more common each year. The recent price hike on gas, now thankfully behind us, provided ample incentive for businesses to re-examine their policy on telecommuting, and may prove to be the catalyst for an already occurring trend. During the $4 gas period, some companies offered 4 day work-weeks (10 hours a day) and others permitted working from home, with weekly in-office meetings.

While the price of gas hurt businesses, it really took a toll on the daily driver. I figured this would be an opportune time to point out some advantages to working from home.

Most of us are not lucky enough to know what career we want to go into until quite late in the game. With everyone talking about a bad economy coming our way, that choice never seemed more important. Want to narrow down your choices based on the job market conditions? There are quite a few ways to do this.

Last time I posted about jobs, I mentioned the value of search optimizing your resume, and gave you an easy way to discover the most recruiter-searched resume keyword terms. I also discussed the reason many people end up hating their job, and how to avoid it.

Usually, people just wait to be promoted, or move to a higher position at a different company when they want to move up in their career. A few days ago, a friend of mine told me about his new (creative) attempt to move up the corporate ladder at his company. What he did was create a brand new job description for the job he wanted to do for the company. That’s right - he created his own title, essential job functions, listed the needed relevant skills, and made his own compensation figures. He then handed it right in to the boss.

Some industries have small consequences if you mess up.  A florist forgets to include one of the flowers in a display.  A painter uses the wrong color on a hallway. Other industries, such as law, consulting and insurance, potentially have much more severe consequences.  If you are in one of these industries, you would be wise to use a useful tool called a “Memo To File”.

A Memo To File is essentially a way to record important information and have it readily accessible if/when you need to remember it.

Usually when I discuss optimizing keywords I am referring to targeting search engines like Google, but what about the “niche” search engines that are mushrooming up all over? Those search engines are often used not just by consumers, but also by job recruiters (among others).

I’ll take for example a site like Monster.com or Craigslist, both sites with tons of resumes posted on there. How do you get your resume seen by as many recruiters as possible?

Mint, the web 2.0 online money management system, went live today.  Mint had been in development for quite some time, and I was excited to see how they planned to simplify personal finance.  I had a chance to take it for a test drive, and I have some good news - it is incredibly useful.  Best of all, it’s free!

What Can Mint Do?

Mint Transactions Screenshot