7 Mistakes Made by Fired Contestants on The Apprentice

7 Mistakes Made by Fired Contestants on The Apprentice Life as a contestant on the Apprentice isnt an easy ride. Theyre given tasks that will push them to  their limits and Lord Sugar sticks firmly to his no nonsense attitude, meaning individuals  have to  step up their game  and avoid slipping up at all costs to impress him. Though a lot of the scenarios that the contestants find themselves in on the show are a far fetch from real life, a lot of the skills and business knowledge  they have to demonstrate are highly transferrable to real life. Unfortunately, not everyone can land the job as Alan Sugars business partner, so each week we wave goodbye to one of the contestants as Lord Sugar tells them Youre fired! So where did these contestants go wrong  and what can we learn from their mistakes? 1) Dont  underestimate your customers intelligence Your customers arent stupid, so  it is unlikely that they are  going to fork out 10 times the value of your product on sale. Sarah in season 10 learnt this the hard way, when she tried to flog a bucket of sponges for a whopping £250The only way she was going to get anywhere near the asking price is if she managed to convince the customers the sponges grow legs and do your cleaning for you, and even then I think she may have been pushing her luck! 2) Dont waste peoples time Having since made a career for herself for making obscene comments and becoming Britains most hated woman, it had probably skipped a lot  of our minds that Katie Hopkins first entered the lime light in Series 3 of the Apprentice. She even managed to hold her position in the competition right up until the Final of the show, just to quit at the last minute.  Alan Sugar is probably breathing a huge sigh of relief about it today, however at the time her departure was perceived as  a huge waste of his time and she came across as highly ungrateful about the opportunity being offered. 3) Dont come on too strong Youre not going to sell your product by scaring your customers or forcing your sales pitch down their throat! Take note Jason from season 9, pouncing on unsuspecting passers by is not the most effective sales technique. 4) Dont be offensive Though political correctness may be taken overboard at time, youre not going to sell any products by offending your customers! On more than one occasion, teams have demonstrated pretty poor judgement when faced with the task of creating a TV ad. Im sure that Fat Daddys Fitness Hell from season 10 will really be a best seller! And dont even get me started on the sexist Octi-Clean ad in series 6!   5) Dont let your ego take over Over the years there have been some huge personalities on the show with even bigger egos. Remember Steven from season 10? Sure, a level of confidence can be advantageous in business, as assertion and self-assurance is sometimes required to win customers over; however there is a fine line between confident and arrogant and arrogance can be incredibly off-putting. People are more likely to buy from individuals who are likeable and humble, than someone who rates themselves a bit too highly. 6) Know your market Trying to sell fish-fingers to a vegan cafe owner was never going to work out for Mergim in Series 11! Do your research and identify who your target market are before making your approach. In fact, its probably best  for you to determine whether your target market actually exists before proceeding with your business venture in the first place, but hey the contestants had the shift these fish fingers quick! 7) Dont  bite off more than you can chew Be realistic about what you can offer customers, as to make a promise that you cannot fulfill will  reflect badly on you if you fail to meet their expectations. If something is beyond your capabilities, be honest and try to come to another arrangement. Unfortunately Shibby from Series 6 didnt think it through when he took an order for 1,900 bread rolls, only to produce 16 on the day. His answer: Tell your guests to go on the Atkins diet.

The First 5 Steps to Launch Your Dream Career - Classy Career Girl

The First 5 Steps to Launch Your Dream Career The Dream Career Launchpad is truly about helping you determine your direction, create a plan of action, conquer your fears, make time for your priorities and make a mental commitment to achieve the success you know you want to have. I break down each step that you need to take before you launch your dream career to ensure your success. Let’s get started! The First 5 Steps to Launch Your Dream Career Step 1: Time: Dont Waste It This step is important because you are probably feeling like there is more to do than time allows, you are battling procrastination and having a hard time finding balance. You aren’t sure how to carve out “me” time for your goals and are feeling drained and missing out on your family. Most importantly, you don’t want to waste time so that is why we start with time first to help you make time to launch your dream career. Your Action: Create a schedule. List your 3 priorities for the week and  find a to-do list that works. (You can download our calendar and to-do list here). Step 2: Mindset Conquer Your Fears The second step is to conquer your fears. You might be afraid to fail and so you are backing off. Thinking about all the what ifs and losing confidence in yourself. Battling self-doubt and wondering if you are really good enough to make your dreams a reality. You think you are never going to get hired and you are afraid to dream too big. You are also having a fear of living up to other people’s expectations. Your Action: List all of the things that could go wrong if you go after your fears. Then, list all of the things that could go right if you go after your fears. Then, ask yourself if it is worth it to go all in? Step 3: Commit Make a Mental Commitment This is the most important step for you if you are afraid to take the first step. You are indecisive and scared to make the wrong choice. You are wondering if it’s time to make a career move and struggling with uncertainty so you just stay in limbo and do nothing. Your Action: Create a contract with yourself that you will go after your dream career. Sign it and date it and put it where you can always see it. Tell a friend about your commitment and make the first step TODAY towards your dream career. Step 4: Direction Determine Where You Want to Go The fourth step is to know the direction you want to go in. This step is so important if you don’t know what’s next and are feeling really lost. If you are in limbo and it’s hard to figure out your passion and what you love to do. You can’t find your “thing” and haven’t figured out what you want to be when you grow up. This step is vital to launching your dream career. Your Action:  Create your ideal job description. Make a list of all of the tasks and jobs you have done that you have LOVED. Write your own job description using only the tasks you have loved. Step 5: Plan Fine Tune Your Ideas The fifth step is to fine tune your career and business ideas and plan for your launch. This is for you if you just need to make that first step and need a jumpstart. You want to plan out your transition and starting making forward momentum but you just aren’t sure exactly how to start and go about it the best way. So this is where you narrow it all down and create your 90-day plan. Your action: Download your FREE 90-day Planner  and get access to an example 90-day planning template and a blank one that you can complete yourself.

Business People Suck at Technology Startups - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Business People Suck at Technology Startups - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Business people are becoming increasingly attracted to technology startups. We dream of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg or the next Instagram. I spoke with an undergraduate the other day who quit during his third year of college to pursue a technology startup in Silicon Valley. Business people need to realize that we are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to technology startups. We cant code the technology, we dont understand the principles of usability and experience, and we arent graphic designers.  Were at the mercy of the product, which means that were not in control of our company. Early stages of a technology startup The ideal technology startup is founded by three people: CEO Engineer Designer While the engineer and designer build the product, the CEO does everything else: raises funding, finds clients, finds users, does the accounting, the legal, and recruits talent. There is an opportunity for a business person to become the CEO of a technology startup, but from my experience, its extremely beneficial for the CEO to be an engineer as well because they can help build the product, help recruit other talented engineers, and they tend to get more respect from investors. What about sales or users? During the early stages of a startup, sales is all how to find a first mover and how to get a customer to pay for your product. Its the process of discovery, of figuring out what your target market wants, and more importantly, if youre going after the right market. Therefore, its extremely important that the executive team is involved with the initial sales process: the CEO, the engineer, and the designer. Do not hire a sales person. Its a waste of money. At the early stages of a technology company, you have no idea what to sell and who to sell it to.  Sales people should only be brought on board once you have figured out what youre selling, to whom youre selling to, and how much youre selling it for. Its of vital importance to get the Chief Technology Officer on sales calls and meetings. They need to understand the target markets mindset to know that the product the company is building fits the needs of the target market. What is a business person suppose to do? First of all, stay away from technology startups. Instead, a business person should seek to build a company based on their skills and abilities: The ability to network The ability to sell a product The ability to drive traffic to a website Furthermore, the business model of the company should not be based on fundraising at the beginning in hopes of making money eventually; instead, the business model should focus on profitability from the very beginning. In essence, the business person should focus efforts on building a lifestyle business. How to build a lifestyle business The first step is to truly understand the intersection of the following: What do you like to do What are you great at How can you make money Everyone is different.  Ill give you an example of the intersections for my lifestyle business: I like to travel I can drive traffic to a website better than anyone I know I can monetize the traffic through affiliate deals Take care of yourself before you take care of the world I have great respect for entrepreneurs that want to fundamentally change an industry or that strive to make a positive change in the world.  But many of these entrepreneurs are struggling to make ends meet, focusing more on how they can help others as opposed to how they can help themselves. My suggestion is to first establish a lifestyle business, one that generates sustainable income and allows you to focus your time and efforts on what you really want to do. Author: Jun Loayza is the Founder of Tour Woo, the easiest way to book a tour online.  In his startup experience, Jun has raised over $1,000,000 in funding, sold two internet startups, and lead social campaigns for Levis, Sephora, and Whole Foods Market.  Read his blog to learn how to build a lifestyle business.

Five Sports You Can Do While On a Business Trip

Five Sports You Can Do While On a Business Trip Traveling on a business trip can take you to some weird and wonderful places around the world. A business trip, however, is not a holiday. While you can still see all the sights and sounds, you might be feeling mentally exhausted from your business meetings. In that case, why not rather explore some physical activities available in the vicinity? Sports can be a great way for you to truly explore a destination while giving your mind a chance to rest during after your business meetings. Here are five sports you can do whilst on a business trip. Kitesurfing  Kitesurfing may look like a difficult sport to attempt, but it is actually one of the easiest water sports to learn. With the right instructor and equipment, the learning curve is very fast. There are a myriad of training institutes with lessons and will have you comfortable with basic techniques and equipment within hours. Once equipped, you’ll be gliding across the water, taking in the sunshine. Kitesurfing can help you explore the coastline of your business trip location, with a unique view of the water. Thanks to the short learning curve, you’ll be able to take it up again on your next business trip. Hiking  If you’re not into watersports or are landlocked, hiking is an age-old activity that will help clear the mind and refresh you before the next meeting. Research your destination to find the best hiking routes. Consider joining a Solo Travellers Group for added company or safety. If you’re more athletic you could consider trail running the hiking routes. This is great exercise and will allow you to experience the unique and beautiful landscapes of your destination. Orienteering  If hiking isn’t challenging enough for you, then orienteering might be a great business trip sport to do. As the name suggests, it involves orienting yourself and moving through terrain at pace. You will be able to make use of a topographic map and a compass to navigate from point to point. If you have a competitive streak, you can compete to complete the course in the quickest time. There are orienteering bodies in over 30 countries worldwide. While some courses are in forests, others are in urban areas. It’s a great way to explore a location while at the same time keeping your mind focused on the task at hand. Skiing  If your business trip places you in an icier terrain, perhaps it’s time to pick up the skis? The basics of skiing can be learnt within a day. In terms of fitness, skiing can be demanding on your legs. If you enjoy cycling, this won’t be as much of an issue. Skiing is a great way to get into snowsports. It can add an extra dimension to a business trip in the middle of an icy winter. It might even draw you back to the destination for an actual holiday. If you are interested in something a little more extreme, snowboarding can also be learnt in a day or two. Snow Skool has a great article to help you decide on whether skiing or snowboarding is best for you. Petanque If the thought of extreme sports is causing more stress than the upcoming business meetings, then perhaps a more cultural sport is better suited to you. Petanque falls in the category of boules sports. You’ll find the sport played in village squares, usually with elderly players smoking cigarettes. Petanque is played in most countries around the world and is very easy to learn. It is played outdoors and can be a great way to slow down and take in the location around you. While it is traditionally associated with elderly French men, it is increasingly being played by all ages and sexes. The Sporting Edge  Business trips can be frustrating if you aren’t able to appreciate the destination properly. Oftentimes we immediately seek out the tourist attractions, but mentally we might be too drained to really take them in. Finding sports in the area will help you refresh your mind while taking in the location you’ve traveled to. And who knows it might just give you the competitive edge you need for the upcoming meetings.

Resume Writing Tips and Tricks

Resume Writing Tips and TricksThere are thousands of websites that offer resume writing help and tips and tricks for your resume, but only a handful can actually be considered legitimate. In this article, we will briefly outline some of the most effective search methods that you can use to weed out all of the good programs from the bad ones.One way to begin your search for a program to help with your resumes is to simply look at the companies themselves. Many of the more well known and recognized organizations will typically have a profile section on their website where they will list a number of the best resumes. To find them, simply enter a company name into the search box. On average, these programs typically get resumes within a few minutes.When looking for software programs to help with your resume's, it is also possible to find information through reviews that others have written about the program. Look at some of the most popular review sites and see what they say about the pr ogram. A few of the best programs will have ratings from people who have used the program, which you can use to make your decision.Even if the program has very few reviews or ratings, you should still look at them closely. The basic rule of thumb is that if the program claims to be able to automatically write resumes to perfection, then you are probably better off getting outside help with your resume writing search. The last thing you want is to spend lots of time trying to write the perfect resume, only to find out that the program can't handle it because it doesn't know how to format your information properly.One program that you might be tempted to try is the free one. This is great if you just need a simple resume to start your job hunt. Unfortunately, if you are looking for help with your resume, the free program may not be able to really help you because it does not have much formatting capability. Most of the best programs will require that you either pay in some way or prov ide them with some sort of credit card number to be able to work with you.Many of the top programs will usually ask you to provide them with your credit card information before you can even begin your resume writing search. As a result, many of the most popular free programs are not really worth your time, as you could probably get by with paying a little bit of money and doing your own resume writing search. If you have limited resources, you are going to be limited in your options.Finally, there are also plenty of paid programs that can help with your resume writing search. These programs are typically much more expensive than the free ones, but they can be useful to get you a free resume to look over before making your final decision. The catch is that the cost of the program is going to be dependent on the level of work you need to do, so you will definitely need to decide whether you are willing to invest in a more extensive program before you go ahead and start using it.As you can see, there are a number of different programs that you can use when you are looking for resume writing help. It is important to understand that no program is going to be capable of writing a perfect resume on its own. However, you can use several different programs to look over each of your resume writing samples, and you can do this online with relative ease and confidence.

How NOT to lead geeks - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

How NOT to lead geeks - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog When the geeks at NCR in Australia threatened to go on strike, it was a move that could have paralyzed ATMs, supermarket cash registers and airplane check-in. This underlines the fact that IT has become so central to almost all corporations, that any disruption may cost a lot of time and money, which again means that keeping the geeks happy at work is an absolute requirement for a modern business. Happy geeks are effective geeks. The main reason IT people are unhappy at work is bad relations with management, often because geeks and managers have fundamentally different personalities, professional backgrounds and ambitions. Some people conclude that geeks hate managers and are impossible to lead. The expression managing geeks is like herding cats is sometimes used, but thats just plain wrong. The fact is that IT people hate bad management and have even less tolerance for it than most other kinds of employees. So where does it go wrong? I started out as a geek and later became a leader and an IT company founder so Ive been lucky enough to have tried both camps. Here are the top 10 mistakes Ive seen managers make when leading geeks: 1: Downplay training I had a boss once who said that training is a waste of money, just teach yourself. That company tanked 2 years later. Training matters, especially in IT, and managers must realize that and budget for it. Sometimes you get the argument that if I give them training a competitor will hire them away. That may be true, but the alternative is to only have employees who are too unskilled to work anywhere else. 2: Give no recognition Since managers may not understand the work geeks do very well, its hard for them to recognize and reward a job well done, which hurts motivation. The solution is to work together to define a set of goals that both parties agree on. When these goals are met the geeks are doing a great job. 3: Plan too much overtime Lets wring the most work out of our geeks, they dont have lives anyway, seems to the approach of some managers. Thats a huge mistake and overworked geeks burn out or simply quit. In one famous case, a young IT-worker had a stress-induced stroke on the job, was hospitalized, returned to work soon after and promptly had another stroke. This post further examines the myth that long work hours are good for business. 4: Use management-speak Geeks hate management-speak and see it as superficial and dishonest. Managers shouldnt learn to speak tech, but they should drop the biz-buzzwords. A manager can say We need to proactively impact our time-to-market or simply use english and stick to We gotta be on time with this project. 5: Try to be smarter than the geeks When managers dont know anything about a technical question, they should simply admit it. Geeks respect them for that, but not for pretending to know. And they will catch it geeks are smart. 6: Act inconsistently Geeks have an ingrained sense of fairness, probably related to the fact that in IT, structure and consistency is critical. The documentation cant say one thing while the code does something else, and similarly, managers cant say one thing and then do something else. 7: Ignore the geeks Because managers and geeks are different types of people, managers may end up leaving the geeks alone. This makes leading them difficult, and geeks need good leadership the same as all other personnel groups. 8: Make decisions without consulting them Geeks usually know the technical side of the business better than the manager, so making a technical decision without consulting them is the biggest mistake a leader can make. 9: Dont give them tools A fast computer may cost more money than an older one and it may not be corporate standard, but geeks use computers differently. A slow computer lowers productivity and is a daily annoyance. So is outdated software. Give them the tools they need. 10: Forget that geeks are creative workers Programming is a creative process, not an industrial one. Geeks must constantly come up with solutions to new problems and rarely ever solve the same problem twice. Therefore they need leeway and flexibility. Strict dress codes and too much red tape kill all inovation. They also need creative surroundings to avoid death by cubicle. Making one or more of these 10 mistakes (and Ive seen managers who make all 10) has serious consequences, including: Low motivation High employee turnover Increased absenteeism Lower productivity Lower quality Bad service Happy geeks are productive geeks, and the most important factor is good management, tailored to their situation. Caveats: Im not saying that all geeks are the same. Geeks are wildly different people and this post does generalize dangerously. Im not saying that all IT-people are geeks. Some are, some arent. I definitely used to be. Translations This post is also available in other languages: Portuguese: Como N?O liderar geeks, translated by Cesar Cardoso. Spanish: Como NO liderar geeks, translated by Mat?as Agust?n Bellone. Italian: Come NON dirigere i geek, translated by Marco Bertola. Persian translation by Nasser Ghanemzadeh: Part 1, Part 2. German: Wie man Geeks NICHT f?hren sollte, translated by Peter K?ves. Danish: Hvordan man ikke leder n?rder, translated by Flemming Laugaard. Related posts If you liked this post, I think youll also enjoy these: Book review: The Seven-Day Weekend Why motivation by pizza doesnt work Top 5 business maxims that need to go Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

[Infographic] Freelance Like A Boss In 2017 - CareerEnlightenment.com

Freelance Like A Boss In 2017 Do you know how many freelancers are out there? Are you one of them? The following infographic made by Zeqr, an online learning platform, digs into some interesting statistics that will encourage you to pursue a freelance career.The number of freelancers is growing year after year, and nowadays more than 55 million people in the US are embracing this great opportunity. According to a recent study, freelancers feel better about their work and 79% of them say that this career path is better than traditional work.In fact, thanks to freelancing, these people actually look forward to starting their workday, which usually isn’t the case when you have a cubicle job. Moreover, freelancers even feel more respected and empowered, which is good enough to motivate them to achieve results. Want to Read More Articles Like This One?Sign up here to receive weekly updates from Career Enlightenment, and never miss another powerful job searching tip! SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed!W e hate spam too. Unsubscribe any time. Just in case you need additional encouragement: more than 63% of people freelance by choice, rather than necessity, and 51% of freelancers find the type of projects they’re looking for in less than 3 days and 91% in under two weeks. Pretty impressive, wouldn’t you agree?Another thing worth mentioning is that an average full-time freelancer spends 36 hours per week working, whereas traditional full-timers spend 40 hours at their 9-to-5 jobs. To get more insight into the world of freelancing, make sure you check out this infographic.Are you ready to take the plunge? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.