Turning Pulp into Fiction: The Rock Story

I drive around alot. Not because I want to be environmentally unfriendly, but because my current job requires it. As a result, or a byproduct, I get several hours per night to listen to either the radio or a book on tape. (Which I haven’t done as much recently. And yes, that’s so 1980’s…)

Recently, I began to put together a list of songs that will go into a fiction story based on Rock songs and Rock bands. (Rock being a very broad category since electronica, DJ whomever and classical sounds will be included.)

It might center around a lady name Gaga - who does not like her real name, now? (She likes Gaga ok, just not the Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. I mean, why not S-JAG.)

Just don't call me Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, OK?

Anyways, back to the pulp. Scripting out a story with nothing but song titles and Rock names seems a bit 8th graderish.  Something one does to their Trapper Keepers or the one-subject $1.29 70-page notebooks. (So 80’s again.)

But a montage of songs with a story line could work. And I’ll have to be at my surfing best to remember titles since no ordinary rock station tells you the title anymore. (And I do not have XM or a modern radio that tells you that sort of information. Did I get caught in a time warp? Did Marty McFly take me back in time?)

Rock legends are easy to include: Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Simon & Garfunkel, ZZ TOP, etc. etc. etc.

The weird one-hit groups or songs from 2008, because I’m so late, will be the gold to make this one a platinum outing.

It is off the beaten path of this blog to talk about a creative project which has seen its better days. (I’ll include pictures to move such a story along.)

But with a recession, you try different ideas – written and creative – to stir the juices. This one will be one of many in my Trapper Keeper of “boy, what the hell was I thinking” about during mid-2009.

Such is life – KEEP IT ROCKIN’!!

BE a JUKEBOX HERO!

Entreprenuer: Having the Knack and Developing a Niche

It would seem to be a terrible time to start a business. But that is always the case…if you are just saying that to avoid the pain of creative enterprise.

I have a head for business..and a bod–bottom line for…you!!!

In reading The Knack,  Inc. writers Bo Burlingham and Norm Brodsky delve into what makes a successful business from the very beginning. Things like having high gross margins, stable (and growing) cash flows, and the ability to handle multiple problems with a quick assessment of the situation and how to fix it before it becomes an ongoing problem.

Each situation encountered is told via a letter to Inc. that points to typical business start up hesistations, and what worked, and what didn’t, for Norm.

As a wannabe entreprenuer, I hope I can get the idea, the team and capital in place to successfully launch a good business. Ideas are not hard to find. The team is a matter of connections. The capital, well, we will have to see on that front.

Get the Niche! And scratch it!

Business Card: Not an easy task to be different

In today’s ever changing landscape of business, having a good first impression is ultimate to landing that deal that makes or breaks you. So how does one do it?

Business Cards are so last century, since we just kick people into our phones, and forget them, unless…they have the service we need. But what if our business card is really unique?

And provides all the information we need to know about the company or services they provide?

Well, I attempted mine using only Powerpoint for card design and a logo.

Utilizing only a basic Powerpoint Presentation format (the green wave to the left), Text boxes, and inserting a JPEG of a logo made from another Presentation, the card works well for this particular business.

1. Company Name is Clear
2. Logo reinforces the name
3. What I can do (services) is listed on the card
4. Contact information is clear
5. A motto works for the company
6. A picture of the person makes them more memorable and unique

By no means would this work for other ventures, however, for a writer or independent entreprenuer, it does address all the basics of what can I do?, how do I contact you?, do you have a guiding force? and is there somewhere to find you or leave information outside of phoning or emailing you? 

While I only did this as a trial example, I might step up to a better program and find a good outlet to print up some cards.

I hope your business cards reflect what you do, how to contact you, and what is your motto in business. People like connections to solid outfits – be that outfit that gets passed on via a card.

(Note: Due to the size of actual card – the JPEG image inserted is not so clear. I am sure I could improve that – but for this exercise, it worked.)

Reviving your career: A silver bullet approach to staying and succeeding in your career

As we all attempt to manage through an economic crisis – by cutting expenses, reducing frivolous spending, redesigning our budget, and refinancing our debts – we usually turn again to how to manage our career.

 

What do we do that makes us indispensable as an employee or manager?

 

What's the Magic Bullet?

 

In Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work, Steven Viscusi imparts that being visible, easy to get along with, a team player and open to development opportunities are the keys to being heralded as a quality employee by your boss, and someone that will never be a “victim” of downsizing, rightsizing, layoffs or “the axe.”

 

Visibility as an employee often means staying later than the boss, paying attention to the details, taking the lead on projects and opening up conversations with your boss.  Another part of any employee’s road to career success is to project professionalism via appearance, listen to others and speak up when necessary. To also dig for hidden opportunities while being a team player, and utilize those project successes as a way to spread credit while building those resume bullet points.

 

We have to be creatures of opportunity, seeing each handshake and each encounter as a chance to develop a strong framework for a better career.

 

While we are at work, there is always a temptation to talk about our personal flaws, gossip, complain or shop for a spouse while punching the shift clock. Don’t. The downsides are greater for most than the potentials for advancement.

 

While it is often “nice”  for the boss to know you are going through difficulties, remember: he/she is likely in, or has gone through recently, the same types of stuff. Would you want to be their shoulder to cry on?  Measure your bosses openness and closeness of your relationship before engaging them for such advise and sympathy.

Intimacy formed on intense projects turn bad more often than they work out in June weddings. Pursuing them leaves you open to jealousy, judgment questions, and the inevitable conflict of just being in the company of some you can not stand anymore.As Viscusi opines: “Just be clear about the risk involved. Let’s just say it’s not the world’s best bulletproofing behavior.”

 

 

 

Being “easy” means being a workplace cornerstone. Staying consistent. Minimal conflicts – in fact, reduce them at all costs. Discuss ideas, not the color of the temp’s underwear in front of the office manager, who is a woman. Keep etiquette in mine around all people. (Religion is for Sunday (Saturday, for some) and not for the pre-launch discussion of a multi-million dollar project you have been promoted to head up.)

 

If people come to you with their problems and concerns constantly, it means they see you as “the answer man” in the organization. That is good – if often, tiring.

 

While you are at work, you must be “useful”  to your boss. Else, why have you there?

 

Help your boss by training others on systems. Or educate yourself on other departments – software, policies, how they problem solve – because the more tools you have at your disposal, the more valuable you become.

 

Value equals quality divided by price. Quality in this case means the qualities you bring to the table – ability to speak a foreign language, computer proficiency, international understanding, flexible schedule and task assignments, and prior successes – all add to your “quality portfolio.”

The greater your quality portfolio is, the greater your value is. (And your price, your salary, increases with this equation. And you will likely never lack for a position or the headhunters searching for your talents.)

 

When all else fails, and your entire company flushes down an economic black hole, you have to prepare to take action. Simply put (Viscusi key points):

 

1)     Have 6 months to 2 years of income in liquid assets such as a CD. Sanity and confidence are important when you are either out of work or see the company is not going in the right direction. You make decisions out of strength, not weakness.

2)     Update Resume to include accomplishments, accolades and new skills.

3)     Social Network, Face-to-face network, Recruiter network – but use it as a career platform, not as a ‘what I did in the Bahamas with my boyfriend’  posted on Myspace. LinkedIn and Facebook are good places to seek out appropriate networking. 

4)     Help others reach their goals. The favors can be returned – in unexpected ways.

5)     Join a professional association or take an interest in a conference on your field.

6)     Write on your expertise and get it published.

7)     Continue Education via distance learning, outside reading (on any subject) and incorporate it while you’re still employed. Let the employer pick up the tab.

8     Staying ready and alert is the ultimate take away.

 

Bulletproof Your Job gives 50 tidbits of advice that are crafted to make you think about the behaviors, the tasks, the goals and the results of being a solid workplace team player. How to survive the downturns that take place, the importance of networking, resume building keys, and mentoring (having one and doing it for others.) The best payoffs of educating yourself constantly are that no one can take that away from you.

 

Viscusi’s posts further on his recent book at the Huffington Post.

The New Media: The Printed Blog

As has been recently reported, the old print media has taken a beating. The Detroit Free Press, Christian Science Monitor, and several others have seen their business model of generating ad revenue from various sources dwindle (in part due to the current financial crisis) and from competition from the new media, the internet. While they suffer, close down home delivery services, and try to salvage their business through patchwork and quickie makeovers, a new business is cropping up:  the blog-to-your-street, internet-savvy The Printed Blog.

This 1st generation of on-line publication to the local masses come from the mind of Joshua Karp, founder and publisher. Recently profiled in Wired, Joshua Karp asks the logical question: “Why hasn’t anyone tried to take the best content and bring it offline?”  

Within that idea and framework, The Printed Blog hopes to take blogger-wanna-be-journalist types and utilize their content in local publications in a quick read format (a typical paper will be 11×17-inch on three pages, six sides in full color.) Their hope is to gather unique articles from people with expertise in various fields, writing ability, and a friendly voice to the man on the street while crossing the avenue to the social networking arena of Flickr, Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook.

One can see potential in a twice daily print of content gathered from online “beat” reporters. But one can also see the downsides as people can utilize searches and pick and choose content they prefer. But that should not stop The Printed Blog as it tests the business waters with their ‘reverse print media’ model.

People in a 24-hour world are looking for new, innovative and solid companions while they travel to work, school or actually vacation somewhere else. The Printed Blog hopes to gain traction in New York, Chicago (where they will debut January 27, 2009) and San Francisco. One can foresee 50, 100, or 1,000 various editions across the globe, with the only constraints being financing and the personnel to make it happen.

This blogger/author hopes to see The Printed Blog become ‘The New’ New York Times. But as with anything in business, the market will determine whether it succeeds, or fails.

Working up a business: What’s in a name? Or a logo?

Promoting a business idea is fairly difficult. Millions upon millions start new ventures, becoming overnight entrepreneurs in the hopes that their services, innovations and ultimately, their chutzpah, can pave the way to an established (and profitable) business.

It is hard to get noticed in a crowd of look-alike, sounds-similiar, hasn’t-that-been-done-before operations that are competing for the same almighty dollar. 

Entrepreneur.com provides a framework from which to build your business house, starting with a piece of the foundation: The Name of Your Business.

Coming up with a name is much harder than it appears. It expresses something about the owner (in my opinion) and can convey alot in one word or moniker. As this designer states:

Gerald Lewis, whose consulting firm, CDI Designs, specializes in helping retail food businesses, uses retail as an example. “In retailing,” Lewis explains, “the market is so segmented that [a name must] convey very quickly what the customer is going after. For example, if it’s a warehouse store, it has to convey that impression. If it’s an upscale store selling high-quality foods, it has to convey that impression. The name combined with the logo is very important in doing that.” So the first and most important step in choosing a name is deciding what your business is.

Is your business built to expand into a variety of markets? Are you likely to change over to a new niche?

  From the same article:

Specific names make sense if you intend to stay in a narrow niche forever. If you have any ambitions of growing or expanding, however, you should find a name that is broad enough to accommodate your growth. How can a name be both meaningful and broad? Master makes a distinction between descriptive names (like San Pablo Disk Drives) and suggestive names.

Also, do you plan to be a international business? Does your name translate well across the pond in the Czech Republic? (Remember the name Pinto in Brazilian slang meant, “tiny male genitals.”) Those type of concerns can crop up in making a business.

Can your name be established as the dominant brand? (Can you also take an ordinary word, word bit or misspelled version of a word and turn it into a brand that sells?) These are questions to ask yourself before settling on a name.

Closely related is the Design of a Logo. People are visual creatures and attach good logos to quality operations. A fellow blogger, and successful graphic designer, David Airey has a portfolio of top-quality designs for clients of his. David gives his basic rules for a good logo:

There are four critical elements that can be seen in every great logo design:

1. It must be describable
2. It must be memorable
3. It must be effective without colour
4. It must be scalable i.e. effective when just an inch in size

Points 1 and 2 go hand in hand, because if you can’t describe what a logo looks like then how will you be able to remember it?

Point 3 is important because colour is secondary to the shape. Adding colour to your logo should be left to the very end of the process, because if the mark doesn’t work in black only, no amount of colour will rescue the design.

Point 4 is vital for things such as office stationery (pens, pin badges etc.). All those little things that people often forget about.

David points to things people rarely dream of in starting up a business. Pens, badges? Can I describe the logo to a friend? (In case my friend wants to go to the place – maybe driving directions require looking for a unique logo or signage?)

Experts abound on the best way to get your business running well. Marketing plans, business plans, facility design, cross-marketing, product expertise and the list goes on, but if you don’t do the name well, how can the rest of the plan work like a well-oiled machine?

The path to a good business might not always lie in the products or services (though indeed, it should be) but in the name, logo and colorful nature of the branding of such a business. While you can pay people for the idea to create, what’s in a name, don’t be too afraid to try quirky words, dictionaries, web searches (for eliminating well-used potentials) and just your vision as a potential millionaire to create the final word in your field: the business name and logo.

Welcome!: A Successful Venture begins

This struck me as a time to introduce a new concept I have.

Why not write for you because you hired me to do so? Why not put effort into to a wide array of projects from economic analysis, business plans, resumes, sports writing or other pieces of flavor and substance? So this will become the site – Anything Written - married to others I’ve created and took the time to introduce myself in, or more appropriately, left you wanting for more.

In the next few days, once I have worked a bit on the concept (as I grabbed the website in hopes it was free), hopefully, I will field inquiries into services offered, and how we both, client and business operator, can successfully work to met each other’s goals: your project completed; and my work and skill compensated.

Most of the services offered won’t require the usage of high-end website at a costly price to access. That should tell you that I can work around things that are expensive, but that I will also work cost effectively for you. And will look to establish a routine to get all the jobs done. (That’s your biggest concern.)

As the champion of this new venture, I want to demonstrate and reflect what it is I can do for you. Because where the rubber meets the world road that is exactly what you are after in a consultant to your project.

My skills:

 

1.       Industrial Engineering. College educated. 3+ years experience. (See:IE RESUME.)

 

1.1.    Plant Layout and Analysis – in prior jobs, I developed Autocad floor layouts, redesigned and projected future assembly, manufacturing and warehouse configurations for facilities in the 400,000 square foot range.

1.2.    Capacity Studies – determined maximum operating capacity under current methods and evaluated future expectations based on customer’s needs and programs.

1.2.1.        In Manufacturing, molding press time, WIP storage along with outsourced product information helped define maximum capacity of a facility under current paradigms.

1.2.2.        In Warehousing, limitations were based on usable docks, dock space, turns of inventory, reserve slots, forward pick slots, pallets moved per hour and cases selected per hour or day.

 

1.3.    Budgetary Analysis – developed operating budget for 380 personnel at various operating and employee performance levels in a food distribution center.  (Annual budget of $16.1 million dollars.)

 

1.4.    Project Management – oversaw $250,000 facility modification project to increase SKU count by 20%, pick-to-pallet density and full utilization of storage space while maintaining current 24-7 operation levels for Kroger Co. in a food distribution center. (Sample: Excerpt of IWI Project.)

 

1.5.    Database Management – incorporated current labor standards package and Access database program tools to create a more useful reporting program for senior management and employee usage.  Co-developed automated incentive program to address employee incentive package and reduce errors in reporting, recording and payout.

 

2.       Technical Writing. 4 years experience with several projects using statistical analysis, organizing research and creating graphics for a business plan, baseball history book and labor standards manual. (See: Freelance Resume.)

 

2.1.    Business Plan – Consignment shop business applying for a SBA loan. (See: Neat Repeat’s Business Plan.)

2.1.1.        SWOT Analysis, Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Historical Financials compiled in plan.

2.1.2.        Ownership history, resume, competition analysis, market demographics and consignor study completed.

 

2.2.    Baseball Book – Utilize quality control-like measurements to define shifts in baseball play. Incorporated research from over 400+ sources, utilized databases for statistics capture and integrated biographical and pictorial information to add depth and flavor to project. (See: Chapters of Bringin’ Gas and Dialin’ 9 here.)

 

2.2.1.        Hitting across eight, 14-year eras

2.2.2.        Pitching across eight, 14-year eras

2.2.3.        Negro League History and Biographies

2.2.4.        Ballparks & Stadiums across the Eras

2.2.5.        General Management, Scouting and Sabermetrics

2.2.6.        Franchise histories (Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox)

2.2.7.        Managers, Broadcasters & Umpires (not included in file)

2.2.8.        Salary Escalation

2.2.9.        World Series overview (not included in file)

2.2.10.    Performance Enhancers & Drug usage in The Steroid Era

 

2.3.    Labor Standard Manual – wrote guide to help supervisors understand the concepts of performance ratings, time studies, safety factors and incorporated incentive plans.

 

2.3.1.        History of time studies and how they should be used

2.3.2.        Proper ways to take a time study and regard for the employee (allowances for fatigue)

2.3.3.        Considerations for safety, delays and poor machinery (downtime) when applied to labor standards

2.3.4.        Usage of MTM, MOST, MSD and other pre-determined time standards

 

3.       Blogger. 3 Years experience. (Yahoo 360, Blogspot and WordPress sites.)

 

3.1.    Current Events, Politics, Economics, Sports, Biographies, Personal History and Entertainment are the primary blogs on these sites.

3.2.    Limited experience is SEO techniques.

3.3.    Limited design experience of website.

 

 

 

I consider myself a self-starter and able to find ways to get the job done.

I can be employed to figure out the answers/options.

 

Compile information and design or develop a vision of what it should be.

 

Work towards an ultimate goal; and see it through to its conclusion.

 

And the compensation…that can be discussed later.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jason