In good news the interviews are starting to be scheduled. Setting one up for a week to a week and a half from now. In bad news, KUB is going to turn off the power at 5pm tomorrow.
Blog
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Another interview complete
This past Saturday I had a phone interview with a fantastic person from Net Solutions NA. I felt very good about the position and the interview itself. The company founder and I share similar philosophies.
Have I quit working for myself? No! Even someone working a job that they love must occasionally entertain an interview. Until an offer is made and accepted, I still am marketing myself strongly and even if I accept a position a condition of hire must be that I must fulfill my obligations to existing clients. As of yet, I have no offers.
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Being Poor Is Expensive!
So, when you run out of money and bounce a check, the bank charges you a $35 fee for each overdrawn draft. Typically one leads to another like a snowball running over dominoes. If you are poor, probably with bad credit, and work for yourself, you cannot have a credit card to act as overdraft protection. Society doesn’t permit that. Ironically, if you have money, you can also have as much credit as you like; I know this – once upon a time I was "the credit card kid!" I overheard someone tonight bragging on his cell phone that "I can put my child’s college education on my credit cards." The poor person that is not provided the leniency of credit during their difficult times is further punished for not having money by being charged a $36 per day overdrawn fee by their bank. Quickly, a poor person that has drained their bank account trying to purchase store brand food and necessities can come under the hammer for several hundred dollars in non-tangible fees.
Out of curiosity, I called LaborReady yesterday to see how they worked:
Me: How do you work?
LaborReady: You work today, you get paid today.
Me: Excellent! Do you have any jobs that pay $300 or $400?
LaborReady, laughing: No. Show up at 5am [20-30 minute drive] dressed for construction and fill out an application. At 5:30 we will tell you if you are working that day. Pay is $6 per hour.$6 per hour! After taxes and cost of lunch, that will about pay the gas it took to get to the LaborReady office and job site. How could a poor person even consider paying the banking fees doing something like that?
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Current Status
Due to the debacle with my non-paying clients, our hosting and many other things were suddenly in danger. A kind soul helped with the hosting situation; however, Comcast decided that we could live without a connection to the Internet. That is like taking away my air supply! Fortunately, a friend has let me move my computers into his business office to allow me to continue my current project. Cathy will return to posting as soon as I get something worked out. Phones are next on the chopping block. So, how does one communicate with clients and arrange interviews without email or phone?
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Looking to go corp
I love working for myself. I love working from the house. I have worked the past 9 weeks for free because I was unable to collect on my last two major projects. My business practices have to change to prevent this from happening again.
There are five companies in the Knoxville area that could woo me back into corporate life: Scripps Networks, Jewelry Television, Bush Beans, SAIC (wow! SAIC IPO’d!), and Clayton Homes. I am sure there are others. I really know my stuff when it comes to ColdFusion. PHP, MS SQL and MySQL. ColdFusion is my love. I learned yesterday that Jewelry Television has a ColdFusion position available and I am applying. Wish me luck!
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Offering New Service
The Apple Computer Store offers a service for $99 per year you can go into the store for up to an hour a week and get help on your computer. I have many requests to help people on their computers but I charge $135 per visit with a 5 hour time limit (The Geek Squad charges that much just to come see you then upsells a bunch). I want to add the Apple Store’s model to my offerings to Knoxville area computer users.
For $200 for a year’s time I will make myself available to you for up to an hour per week for training, computer help, computer advice, and so forth. That’s less than minimum wage! I am charging more than the Apple Store because 1) I will give advice on both PCs and Macs and 2) instead of you going to a store, I will come to you. You must be in the Knoxville area and appointments must be made at least 48 hours in advance.
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Securing Contacts and Jobs
I just put a resume out on this one. Sounds fun!
Duties and Responsibilities:
– Assist in composing web pages and in creating special sections as assigned by the Site coordinator
– Work hands-on in the development of web applications (AJAX/HTML/Javascript)
– Competence creating table-free layouts
– Prototype, develop, and maintain new features and enhancements
– Operates as a leader/lead worker among other staff, shares knowledge or training with subordinates and/or colleagues to benefit the entire department
– Participate in workflow design and analyze existing production and implementation processes in order to insure the overall quality of the sites
– Maintenance and support of existing templates and content production processes
– Perform web development, template writing, testing debugging, documentation, and installation tasks for on-line processes in accordance with industry best practices and specific internal procedures and standards
– Partner with Web-ops to ensure that interactive techniques and technologies translate through to shipping products and services
[Source]One of the challenges of working for yourself is you have to shoot at a lot of barns to hit some work. The problem is barns move pretty quick! Sometimes it is just plain difficult to find a barn. Then the barn’s owner looks at you and may not even give you permission to shoot at the barn in the first place much less give you the barn.
Playing low budget developer and sales person at the same time can lead to missed deadlines or living with very little sleep. Finishing a project, then turning on sales mode can lead to dry spells where you wonder how you’ll eat. Ideally, you should be working with a sales person!
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Email Overload!
My email box on one account had accumulated 6000 emails. I save my emails incase a client ever needs to go back to old conversations. However, much of that 6000 is spam and stuff that should have gone away after the first read. Today I archived all my mail and am starting over with a new mail policy. Deal with it immediately! That means I read it and respond immediately then file it or throw it away. I can’t have stuff missed because I flag it for followup and never get back to it. I am going to work on the same concept in the physical world.
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Hawii Disaster Declared
Did someone forget to enter the numbers?! Hawii had a 6.6-magnitude earthquake. So, is the first question you asked, "Was anyone hurt?" or "Did the Lost set get damaged? And is production delayed?"
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Child Labor is Ok!
So I pop over to Craig’s List to see if anyone in Knoxville posts jobs that pay rapidly and I find this one:
…That consists of taking the supplied directory and placing it into a supplied bag, double tying said bag shut and stacking the completed directory onto a skid.
You will be working primarily unsupervised in a storage unit/miniature warehouse near the Knoxville Zoo. This is an unheated indoor location; therefore you are advised to dress for the weather, it may be chilly in the mornings. … We pay $20.00 per completed skid.Each skid holds about 400 books so if it takes you 15 seconds to pickup, bag, double-tie and place a bookdown you are looking at 4 books a minute so roughly an hour and a half or two for $20. Now this is my favorite part:
While you are welcome to bring your kids to help you, at least one person must be of majority age. Additionally, in such an arrangement, your kids work for you and not us, therefore you are responsible for paying them for helping you. We will pay the adult who responds to this ad.
It saddens a little to see this because with the cash flow issues I have endured as an independent contractor, I can see how a family would need to submit to such a job just to put food on the table. It is a shame that this company does not pay on the day of work but instead holds the money for a week and a half. I hope that I never have to tell the kids, "today for fun we are going to stand on our feet for 8 hours and shove telephone books into plastic bags." Life certainly has humbled me enough to understand that the poor are not given much opportunity to rise from their circumstances.
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Need my expertise?
Anyone needing computers services? I can do physical repairs and on-site work in Knoxville, and can develop websites and software applications worldwide. Email: juggler@gmail.com.
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Bye Bye Black Sheep
What’s this? "Baaa. No black sheep." Kristyk turns us onto this excellent photoblog! I really like the puddle jumping.
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Conundrums – work or play
It’s a beautiful Saturday. I’d love to play with the children. In 3 hours I have to spend 4 hours helping Noah sell popcorn. I need to prepare dinner, work in the yard, work on the house, work on client projects, work on personal coding projects, and…ugh.