[Completely OT] ... job hunters, what would you pay for ...

On 2005-07-10 15:24:42 -0700, "Monique Y. Mudama" said:

On 2005-07-10, Biskybabe penned:

[snip]

Good luck. Starting your own business is really hard, but it's quite
cool, too.

Thanks for all the tips!

I have a solid full-time job, so this would really just be some spare
change and some experience in running my own business ... I would be
happily surprised at two clients a week. But I figure, as long as I'm
thinking about doing this, I might want to think about where it could
lead, too ...

Yeah, that makes a huge difference. When I started consulting hubby had
a job that paid enough to support us and so it was all a bit random. 4
months later he was laid off and we had to make some decisions.

If you're just moonlighting, a bunch of what I suggested isn't
relevant. I would recommend the lawyer for contracts and CYA stuff and
talk with a good tax accountant.

bisky

Karen wrote:
Well, some people certainly need help with resumes. Check out:

http://www.resumania.com/

Some of these are hysterical. They are all REAL.

And I'm looking at some of the jobs posted on the RHI site and I just found
a typo! LOL It says they are looking for a "Director of Client Finacial
Services". Hmmm, wonder what a Finacial involves? A Facial while I give
your client advice?

Jill

Biskybabe wrote:


You'll also want to talk to a lawyer and get a contract that makes it
clear you're not responsible if they don't get a job. Setting customer
expectations is really important for any sort of consultant.

Oh good grief. To write cover letters or resumes? You're joking, right?
Our society hasn't become *that* ligitious, has it??

Sherry

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2005-07-11, Jo Firey penned:


Its a good thing there are people like you to make up for people
like me. I cannot proofread to save my life. And yes I know all
the tricks like reading backwards etc. Can't spell either and my
typing has gone to heck since I have arthritis in my hands.


Reading backwards? I've never heard of that one.

Common proof-readers trick. That way you read each word and your eyes don't
skip over typos because of what your brain "expects" you to see in the
context of the sentence.

Jill

jmcquown wrote:


I used to edit marketing materials pre-production when I worked for a
company. I'm good at catching interesting grammatical errors (aka "my
brother has an agreement with his landlord to exterminate himself" heheh).
Later I went to work for a company who had already had some fancy tri-fold
colour mailers printed and the owner was so proud, passing one around to
show everyone his fancy new brochure. First reading, I noticed it said,
"Toll Tree Support". Uh oh. They'd already had 10,000 of them printed.
LOL

Jill

Having worked print media all my life, I've got tons of typo-horror
stories. Worst one I remember was when the long-time, 85 year old
publisher died. Instead of a regular obituary, there was a very nice
story of his accomplishments, etc. with a photo on the front page,
written by one of the staff writers. The by-line should have read "By
Joe Blow, Staff Writer". Instead, "Staff Writer" turned out to be
"Stiff Writer". Twelve thousand papers were already off the press
before anybody saw it. All of them were destroyed.

Sherry

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
Well, I got a lot of feedback from my job hunt that my cover letter
was absolutely excellent. More than one person said I had the best
cover letter they'd ever seen.

I've also helped a few people recently, and they all said that I had a
real knack for it.

How much would you pay to have someone spell and grammar check your
cover letter and resume?

How much would you pay for a half-hour evaluation of your cover
letter? How about for a more detailed consultation?

I'm also thinking of offering a discount for people who were laid off;
they could provide me with a copy of their lay-off letter as proof.
Thoughts on whether or not that's a good idea?

Thanks in advance to anyone who's willing to answer this. If you'd
rather not answer it publicly, the email address I'm using is valid;
you can just reply.

--
monique

It really depends a lot on the market where you live, and how much your
time is worth to you. If you start advertising, you may be surprised at
the demand for that sort of thing. I used to do resumes/cover letters.
The difficult part is the initial consultation and sorting through the
information. Especially when it's a field of work you are totally
unfamiliar with yourself, and your client isn't good at communicating.
I did a lot of flyers, tri-folds, newsletters, a couple of obituaries
even.
I used the "home office" income tax deductions. The criteria was pretty
strict, IIRC, but it worked for me because the room I used for an
office already had its own entrance to the house. I had to keep track
of how much of the computer I used for business, and was allowed to
depreciate the cost of it. Also a percentage of the electricity/gas.

Sherry

On 2005-07-10 16:03:38 -0700, "Monique Y. Mudama" said:

On 2005-07-10, CatNipped penned:
I think it would be a great service, I'd pay a couple of hundred at
least for something that would help me find a job (not that I'm
looking right now, I *LOVE* my new job).

Wow! I was thinking of numbers much smaller than that. At least
until I get a reputation, I guess.

One thing you might want to think about, however, is whether the
extra money you get will offset the taxes you'll have to pay for
self-employment income (we got hit hard this year because of just a
little bit of extra income I got doing web sites).

Yeah -- do you have any info on this? Do you have to report all
personal income, or only over a certain threshold? Is there a site or
publication somewhere that talks about very small business ventures
and legal/tax responsibilities?

You have to report all income, plus you need to pay self employment tax
(with is 15.something %). You are also required to pay quarterly taxes
(90% of your last year's tax burden or 100% of the current year's tax
burden by April 15th -- unless you make more than 250K and then you
have to pay 110% of last year's tax burden).

Check the IRS website, or the SBA website, both have good information.

b

On 2005-07-10 18:08:48 -0700, "Jo Firey" said:

More information than you ever wanted at http://tinyurl.com/buv4w

Briefly. The way the tax code reads, all income is taxable unless it
says elsewhere it isn't. No threshold. Note the taxes cannot exceed
the income. Just seems like it some times.

I miscalculated taxes something fierce a few years ago. Got utterly
screwed come April 15th. It was September before we'd actually received
enough income to cover what we'd already paid out in taxes. Painful.
Made an impression... I'm now much more careful about stashing 40% of
our income in the account we pay taxes out of.

b

In article , "jmcquown"
wrote:

Karen wrote:
Well, some people certainly need help with resumes. Check out:

http://www.resumania.com/

Some of these are hysterical. They are all REAL.

And I'm looking at some of the jobs posted on the RHI site and I just
found
a typo! LOL It says they are looking for a "Director of Client Finacial
Services". Hmmm, wonder what a Finacial involves? A Facial while I give
your client advice?

Virgin Atlantic, in its business class section on New York to London
flights, offers either manicures or head & neck massage. Maybe this is a
more competitive airline?

Apropos of such things, there's a legendary "job wanted" ad that was
said to have appeared in an aviation industry magazine:

"Retiring Air Force gunnery master sergeant, qualified as gunner on
B-17, B-24, B-29, B-50, B-36 and B-52. Seeks position with small
but extremely competitive airline."

In article .com,
wrote:

Biskybabe wrote:


You'll also want to talk to a lawyer and get a contract that makes it
clear you're not responsible if they don't get a job. Setting customer
expectations is really important for any sort of consultant.

Oh good grief. To write cover letters or resumes? You're joking, right?
Our society hasn't become *that* ligitious, has it??

Yes.