writing a resume: Introduction

Resume Writing Overview

A resume is a tool to highlight your accomplishments and impress potential employers. The idea is you want to sell yourself to the employer in an honest way that will make you stand out from the rest of potential candidates.

So, with that said there are a few general rules for resumes. The number one rule is keep your resume to one page. The old adage, "KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid" comes to mind. You want to write clearly and concisely because if the hiring manger is reading your resume and hits a stopping point then your resume has failed you.

The Stopping Point

The stopping point. A stopping point is when the reader get side tracked by any of the following; grammatical, spelling, content, or format. So, it is imperative that your resume be well formatted with proper spelling and grammar. That will keep your resume in the potential candidates pile.

What Exactly is a Stopping Point

The reasons the above are important is because almost everyone puts, "well organized, attention to detail" on their resumes. So, the hiring manager will gauge what you mean by "well organized" or "detailed" you are by how you have written your resume. So, if it is poorly formatted then your organizational abilities come into question. If you have poor grammar and spelling then your attention to detail will be in question.

 Summary

The best way to avoid formatting, spelling, and grammar mistakes on a resume is to have it peer reviewed and if you know a recruiter have them personally review your resume. The more people that look at your resume the more errors will be found and you will be able to fix. I had one friend who sent his resume around to 10 to 15 people before he finally used it. He now works at a fortune 500 company.

I will be reviewing a couple of websites over the next few days that will help your build a formatted and grammatically correct resume and write on the one I feel performs the best. Also, if you have any questions or would like me to review your resume feel free to contact me here.

Till next time...

Newest Project (Business Planning 1)

Project- G****G****.Com (An ongoing Business Planning Project)

My newest project- really more of an entertainment project- is going to be an online website that caters specifically to the "geek" community. It will be a similar site to Pojo, but better implemented. The idea is to create the number one go to spot for people who have an interest in: News, Dungeons and Dragons, Table Top Games, Video Games, Comic Books, Action Figures, Anime, and an online forum to hang out or participate in an online tabletop (Role Playing Game).

The problems I foresee already are: 

1) lack of content writers: This is just a fun little site I am wanting to work on and I have 3 writers already, I wouldn't mind having a few more to do: product reviews, how to tutorials, and videos as well. So, if anyone knows of anyone let me know in email or reply in comment below and I will get in touch with you.

2) Marketing to get enough viewers, there is stiff competition when it comes to getting a highly trafficked website. In the end the cost to maintain the website will be minimal, but updating content for 1-2 people isn't as rewarding and I fear the writers would stop writing.

3) Website Development: I am wanting to use unique code, which means there will be bugs because as of now I am the lead writer- I don't do code, but I am now learning CSS and HTML. So, if anyone would like to assist in the actual coding of the website hit me up (E-mail) I would love to credit your work on the website. You would be doing me a huge favor and getting the project moving much quicker.

4) Maintaining interest: Many websites have this problem. They can get viewers, but once the viewers have seen the new content they leave. We want the website to be appealing for hours on end. So, we will be adding an online forum in hopes to garner that type of traffic. Eventually I plan to add pre-programmed RPG's to the website, so if no one is online then you could engage yourself with a virtual dungeon master, but that is a long way off.

5) Time management: I will be starting classes in August, which means this project has to be live in only a few short months or it will be Christmas before we actually launch. There is nothing wrong with launching later as it would give us more time to debug before going live. The only problem I have with postponing the launch is that if you postpone a due date then it will become perpetual until it never happens.

Summary

So, those are my first few thoughts towards this project. I will treat this similar to a business plan. At least in planning it- because I am not aiming to generate revenues as a business from this project, but it is still functions like a business. It is a large project that will consume a lot of time and if done wrong will flop.

Why Twitter is Important for Your Business

Social Media and Business

Alright, I have been rather lazy about social media marketing. Word of mouth and personal introductions have gotten me by for my college career, but now that college will soon be ending and I will be entering into the workforce (not surrounded by 5 to 10,000 different people everyday) I have decided to take a leap and start marketing online. So, I am now learning: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

I am somewhat familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and have actually helped create a web development firm, "Straight Shot Web Design" a company that has a flat rate for: Developing your website, hosting your website, and blogging on your behalf as well as provide SEO services. So, that aspect of marketing I am not to rusty on. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn on the other hand are a little more challenging. 

Out of the three social networking sites my biggest difficulty has been getting my Twitter, for Investor Savant, up and running. I think it is simply my niche market, but that is just an excuse for me to be lazy because there are countless twitter accounts that function incredibly well in the industry. So, I have been reading for the past week on how to increase my Twitter followers.

What I have learned; Hash tags are important, Tweeting at people helps, Re-tweeting other tweets by smaller users (100 or less followers) is beneficial, and following people back has worked.

I am currently implementing a strategy I read about where if you follow certain "celebrity tweeters" that they will auto-follow you back. So, this will garner a link "So and So is now following So and so" and it will link back to your twitter, so you potentially have a 100-10,000 twitter accounts seeing your twitter.

Another strategy I am working is simply asking people to follow me on twitter, that hasn't actually caught on because most people I have talked to aren't familiar with twitter. I find that to be a bit strange as it is more popular than Pintrest. 

I am also tweeting more frequently. I was reading that you ideally want to tweet 2-3 times per day to build up a solid base of tweets because people who are on the fence about following you are more likely to follow someone who will keep them up to date.

summary

So, why is twitter important? The market is huge, I am working with a game development company right now on funding their project and twitter has become a focal point for starting a viral campaign. If we can get re-tweets from a few game developers, graphic designers, game reviewers, or gaming journalist then it will be a major boost for the companies awareness and the cost will be minimal!

That is my view on twitter; It allows for entrepreneurs to easily create viral marketing campaigns to increase brand awareness for minimal costs. If your company is not using twitter I would highly encourage you build one and start tweeting! If you are unsure about where to even start tweeting in your industry feel free to contact me, or if you would like to just remove the nuisance of having to worry about keeping your twitter updated with new industry related content and managing your followers you should contact  Joseph at Straight Shot Web Design and see if he is still taking clients for his twitter services.   

5 Things to Consider When Starting Your Business

I have worked with many startup companies and there are a few common themes among each of the new CEOs and I think it is worth mentioning for the vast majority of entrepreneurs.

1) Planning

If you don't plan then you are doomed to fail. Planning however is more than just, "This is my business idea, and I will operate as an LLC, these are the positions in the company." The idea of a business plan is twofold: The first is an internal business plan that will be used for your business planning. The planning stages of a business plan are what I dub the "contingency planning".
Contingency planning, is planning for everything that could go wrong, because everything will go wrong. So, the best way to plan is betting that everything will go wrong. Always have an alternate way of achieving your goals.
The second comes later and is an investors business plan- the plan where you pitch your business to investors in hope of obtaining revered venture capital.

2) Launch the organization with as few people as possible.

Launching an organization with 10 to 20 people sounds wonderful. It actually clogs up the system. It would be much easier for you as a business owner to have a partner and yourself build the organization and then bring in other employees.

The problem starting with 10 to 20 people is that they will all have their own input on how they think the business should be ran. This can create feuds between you and the employees of your business, because at the end of the day your name is on the articles of incorporation not theirs. So, it would be best to bring people in after you have established the ground rules instead of while establishing the ground rules.

3) Screw Venture Capital

I am wanting to eventually make venture capital and entrepreneurship my career, but I will be the first to tell you that if your business does not need venture capital then don't use it! Venture capital can be very strategic or it can be very stupid. If you can launch a business without venture capital why on earth would you want to give away 10-30% of your business to a venture capitalist that you don't need to succeed.

4) Baby Steps

Break your actual business development into baby steps. So, plan out the weeks agenda, "I want to complete these 5 things by Friday." Then systematically work to check them off your list. Working on your business in this manner will keep you organized and on the right track for success.

5) Network

If you are not networking then your business will be lackluster. Networking the where business deals are made and a customer base is formed. If you make friends within your market it will benefit you in numerous ways. One point of contention with almost all the startups I have worked with is that they believe they are "fraternizing with the enemy" this couldn't be further from the truth.
Building friendships in business goes a long way. They could provide that one connection you need to make your business more profitable and because you thought they were an enemy you might never make that connection and your business would be robbed of growth. So, not networking is shooting your business in the foot... so to speak.

Thanks for reading and good luck with your business ventures,
- Mayo

Looking for a Few Good Writers to Join us at Investor Savant!

Investor Savant is looking for a few very intelligent students/investors to become part of the Investor Savant team. While Investor Savant is not generating revenues at this time we are offering one hell of a reference for your future career, and we will help you build your track record for when you apply to work within the investment industry.

In other words we are offering you a foot in the door. If you are interested please email your resume to us here. We will review your resume within 3 business days and get back to you.