Take Three Tablets and grow your business!

Smartphone, Tablet, Mini Tablet, Android™, Windows™, Apple-OS™, Nexus 4™,  Nexus 7™,  Nexus 10™, , Microsoft Surface™,  IPad™,  IPad Mini™  and IPhone™ sounds like language from nerd weekly.  These clever gadgets have us mesmerized.  Last week I watched someone almost walk into traffic looking at their smartphone.

What makes us buy them? Is it status? Is it acceptance from our peers? I don’t know, but I really, really like my smartphone!

Okay I’m a “Droid” person. I like the number of apps developed for the Operating System and Google is trying to take over the world. BUT… I am interested in the new Surface Tablet.  Tablets are mostly used to read content or to use an app but they are rarely used to “produce” content.

Photoshop and other content development apps do not run on smartphones or tablets. Microsoft Surface is leaning toward being the only tablet that will run full blown applications to develop content.  It runs full versions of Office now, but I’m going to wait.

What do these clever little gadgets mean to your coaching business?
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Apps I like for coaches

I won’t go into all 600,000 apps today, just a few that coaches’ access from their smartphones and tablets.



Tweet, Tweet, Tweet! Most of the coaches I know have a Twitter account and they have a following who desires to hear from them.  They attend conferences, workshops and other special gatherings and state meaningful observations to their crowd. Mobile twitter is a decent app for your following.

Mobile Facebook

Having a Facebook page for the business is vital. I have seen coaches respond the moment a person “likes” their page.  They use their smartphone to contact them with a “thank you” to increase the strength of the relationship.

Google GPS

Okay I tried to stay neutral but I love the Google Android “Free” GPS. It is by far the best I have ever used. Coaches rely on this great tool but it limits your conversation if you leave the voice commands on.

Cloud Print by Paulo Fernandes

I quickly added my 6 year old wireless printer (that is not ePrint enabled) to Google’s Cloud Print app.  Within seconds I was able to print from my phone to my office printer from anywhere in the world! To add more printers I simply log into the local wireless network and any printers that are available are added to my list. (Requires Google Chrome and Google Account)

Battery Notifier (Big Text) by SHKIL/LARRYVGS

Battery life is extremely important to me and this battery meter tells me when I am running low without having to go and check the status. It places a percentage number conveniently in my status bar on my phone and I can manage when to charge my phone.  By the way, I let my battery run all the way out before I plug it in, preserves its life.

Believe it or not, it’s a phone. Coaches please protect your phone with some outer skin that can take abuse. Public service… Be safe on the road! Many coaches have thrown away the blue tooth devices and have traded them in for the tangle-less headsets. Many of the phones are voice activated. I rarely use this feature out of courtesy to people around me and noise.

Show Phone Courtesy. Please figure out how to turn off your screen before holding the phone to your face to avoid touch tones! Mute your phone on conference calls. Stay in your car during that important call. I have seen coaches get a bit relaxed and continue to conduct business during their convenience store transaction.

Technology pushes jobseekers back to the pros

Jenny was sent an e-mail telling her that she did not have to come in next week since her position had been eliminated.  After searching online for a while she finally found some positions she was interested in. “What’s Taleo?” she thought to herself.  She applied for the position and moments later she received a rejection e-mail.

She then posted her resume on job websites and quickly got calls from salespeople.  Her search began to wear her down. It seemed like Jenny was on the wrong side of technology. Jenny needed a pro.

We wanted to get to the bottom of her issue. Since we are a technology company we did an unscientific study of jobseekers who used technology to search for a job and found some interesting results.  

·         A whopping 91% of job applicants despise the applicant tracking process (Amplicate).   

·         653 Applicants sent their resume to a fake job posting within 24 hours (Wallstreet).

·         3000 people stood in line for 6 hours and were told to submit their resume online (Chicago).

·         93% of jobseekers we asked remain disorganized using only e-mail to compile their information.

You would think the search process would be easier but it seems to be becoming more complicated.

Take it from a technologist, use a pro and stop wasting time!

Use a Certified Career Coach to unclog your search

Coaches clarify your job/career situation, determine your needs, and you will discover new things about yourself.  You will learn new skills and techniques, develop new perspectives and conquer fear and uncertainty.

Use Certified Professional Resume Writers to “present” not “parrot”

Certified writers probe beyond what you tell them.  They don’t simply list the “stuff you did” but assist you in listing skills, abilities and accomplishments in an organized compelling fashion.

Ask your pro what tools they use to help you get organized

Organization is key to a successful search. Coaches and resume writers who use Career Coach Office tend to be successful at keeping their clients organized. Job seekers can track leads and document important research they find and place it in easy to find records.

Career Coach Office has:

·         Job Lead Management

·         “About the Company” Research Tracking

·         Resume and Cover letter Management

·         Customized Interview Tips and Reminders from the coach

Tell your Career Coach, Life Coach or Professional Resume Writer to use Career Coach Office or have them try it out for free and to put your search put on turbo! They can go to www.careercoachoffice.com today.

Did I call your daughter Zack?

Business was going quite well.  I had made a lot of connections and prided myself on knowing my clients. As I spoke to one of my referrals for the second time I just knew I was going to get a new client. We started discussing children. “How’s Zack” I asked.  From the awkward silence I sensed I had said something wrong. 

“My daughters’ name is not Zack.”

From there the conversation went downhill.  My business had experienced growing pains and I could no longer keep all the information about my potential clients in my head.  The names were too similar or circumstances too parallel.

PHONE NOTES ARE DIFFERENT THAN CONVERSATION NOTES

When I have a conversation with someone I like to document where we had the conversation and list any pertinent information that would help me serve them better.  Usually the actions are longer term so I don’t have to act upon them right away.

When I’m on the phone I like to capture action items and place them in an organized place where I can find them. With separate notes I can see how many times I made contact with the potential client.

GET RID OF THE FANCY NOTEPAD

I called myself organized until I had to find the phone number of someone I was going to refer to one of my clients. I fumbled, flipping through pages and pages of notes but to my chagrin I could not find the information.  Turns out I had written it on another notepad. I discovered the number two weeks later!

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) HAD TO BE EASY

Career Coach Office offers CRM specifically built for coaches but can be used by any business. Keep track of notes and document the number of times you contact that potential client. List action items and keep the relationship flowing towards your business.

HR consultant and Coaches...Try Career Coach Office for free! Go to http://www.careercoachoffice.com.

Veterans Virtual Job Fair November 1-15, 2012

Technology is making it easier for your clients to submit their resumes to many companies and VeteransCONNECT is no exception. The Virtual Job Fair is sponsored through the Veterans Administration and is sponsored by Raytheon and Macy's.

Instructions:

Have your clients register for the Virtual Job Fair by going to: http://workplacediversity.com/VeteransConnect/.

There they can register by uploading their resume and complete their profile information.

The Job Fair starts November 1, 2012 and ends November 15, 2012

Technology suggestions to tell your clients:

1. Check their documents (Resume and Cover Letter) for viruses before uploading them
2. Scan DD-214, Transripts and any other supporting documentation (just in case)
3. If they do not have a computer then have them use free e-mail services such as G-Mail, Yahoo or Hotmail, then leverage resources at their local VA or Library to access the site.

HR consultant and Coaches...Try Career Coach Office for free! Go to http://www.careercoachoffice.com.