The stereo in our hot tub is tuned in to one of those “lite” radio stations that carries the John Tesh radio show, so whenever I/we’re in there I usually catch his show. BTW, if you’ve not heard about the John Tesh show, do a search for it online. It’s packed with handy little tips and life lessons.

JT had a caller who’s story went like this…

The caller went in for a job interview. On time, dressed and prepped for the interview. When he got there, the secretary mentioned to him that the interviewer was running a bit late and asked if he would wait. He said he didn’t have a problem waiting. During his wait, they began a conversation, which went on for quite a while. Long story short - Near the end of their conversation the secretary mentioned that the interviewer was not late. She was the actual hiring manager! She mentioned that she find this form of interviewing potential employees most effective. There is no pressure of a formal interview and the applicant is usually more relaxed and frank with answers. After-all, they think they’re speaking with the secretary.

So next time you’re in for a job interview, be especially nice to the secretary.

I read an article earlier today in the online version of Business 2.0 titled “Extreme telecommuting”. The focus of the article was a telecommuter who took his telecommuting consulting business on the road. Below you’ll find a direct link to the article so you may check it out when you have time. The article went on to explain a few things one should consider before taking your job on the road.

From a personal perspective I tend not to agree fully with the part of the article where it mentions that “There’s always an Internet connection somewhere, even in the poorest, most desperate country” . Though I agree that you can find ways to connect to the internet, the service is not always as good as it can be and not as reliable as one would prefer. The past 3 times I took my work on the road with me, Germany for World Cup 2006, cruise last winter and business trip to the Caribbean in May, it did not work out entirely as planned.

Germany - There was wireless internet at the hotel I stayed at, but not only was it expensive, there were connection issues. And I was always concerned about security when logged on to the wireless service. When I returned home, there was the fighting with my credit card company to dispute the massive bill I received.

Cruise vacation - EXPENSIVE! It didn’t matter if you had the wireless service (you still had to be within range) or if you used the internet cafe, the price hit you like a Randy Johnson fastball! So though the service was there (very slow) it was too expensive to actually do any work.

Business trip to the Caribbean - Just could not get my laptop formatted to work with the island-wide wireless network. The service was there, but it didn’t work with all brands of laptops. There were many internet cafes where I could log on, but internet cafes were not made for working, just checking emails and keeping up with the rest of the world as you travel.
PLUS, there were too many distractions. If I were to take my work on the road, I’ll be visiting places I wanted to see or experience. Therefore I’m not sure how much time I would have for working.

Extreme telecommuting - Want to see the world and collect a healthy paycheck? Just grab your laptop and go.

(Business 2.0 Magazine) — Anthony Page stood on the beach of Malaysia’s tiny Perhentian Kecil Island and marveled at the isolation. Around him were bamboo huts and miles of blue water. Much of the island was jungle, inhabited by coconut-hurling monkeys and giant monitor lizards. Yet he wasn’t entirely cut off. At night, when the electricity came on, Page could pull out his laptop and hook up, via satellite link, to the Web. “There’s always an Internet connection somewhere, even in the poorest, most desperate country,” he says.

Page, 35, had been traveling for almost a year before he got to the island. He hit the road in 2005 when his job as a Web developer in London was outsourced to India. Tired of the grind, he decided to take a leaf from the people his job had gone to: He would work with clients long-distance over the Internet; his office would be the nearest power and Internet hookups.

“Ten years ago, there’s no way this would have worked,” he says. “Now there are hardly any barriers.” With so many choices for voice, e-mail, and video communication, many jobs today can be done without a brick-and-mortar office. Getting paid couldn’t be easier; PayPal and other advances in electronic money management make overseas financial transactions nearly friction-free.

Read the entire Extreme Telecommuting article here.

Whenever you start something new, you’re usually scared out of your pants, and I was no exception.  Oh sure, I’m a self-assured, totally confident freelancer now, but when I got started working for myself, I was sweating bullets.  There’s no one to catch you if you fall, and there’s no one to blame if you mess up.  It was exhilarating; it was exhausting!  I ended up talking to one of my friends, who happens to be a very successful work at home businessman.  That’s one of the first things I can tell you about small business help; it’s all about the networking.  Talk to people who are related to your field, talk to people who don’t seem related.  You never know where you’ll find the real treasures.

The first thing he told me was to take advantage of the internet.  The internet is a way for people to connect and it’s a terrific equalizer.  With a simple yet professional website, you automatically give your company a lot more credibility and the appearance of stability.  If you remember to make sure your webpage load quickly, don’t inflict a lot of bells and whistles on the people who are on dial-up and keep things simple, you’ll already be heads and tails ahead of some of the amateur businesspeople out there.

The second thing he told me was there the internet is full of information and that it was just a matter of knowing where to look.  While he said that small business help was available through basic searches, he also said that that was only the start.  You’ve really struck gold when you find a community.  Find a forum that caters to both your target audience and to the people who are in the same field as you.  Some quick searches through these forums and communities will give you a lot of the basics that people have tested out before you.  Be prepared to wade through some really silly stuff, but the information you get on sites like this is invaluable.

The third and arguably most important thing he told me was to actually be a part of a community, online or off, that addresses the small business at hand.  You can network, make contacts, avoid mistakes that the veterans have already made and meet some genuinely nice and interesting people.  For more immediate help, you might want your own personal guru so head to http://didyousmellthat.com/mentor/.  Gatherings, whether in cyberspace or down at the neighborhood bar, are a great place to get free advice and suggestions.  In fact, my friend said wryly, the trick might be getting it to stop!

When you’ve first stuck out on your own, having your own small business can be overwhelming, but remember the help is never far away.

Have you ever considered the aspect to sell online and make money? Well maybe this is the most appropriate opportunity for you to engage in this kind of profitable activity. Apparently, you can now sell even the oldest “junk” you have hidden in your antique box. With the use of a few clicks and good marketing approach, you can definitely sell your entire collection of loose items over cyberspace.

So how can I start squeezing money out of the internet? Practically, if you have items, old or used, you can sell them to people who might be interested. And the good thing about doing this is you can sell online and make money.

There are a lot of trade websites where you can register to sell your items. For example, you can use eBay.com. This website provides you with a free portal that you can access upon registration. Their easy to use system can be your handy tool to effectively advertise whatever items you may have.

If you are thinking of what specific items can be sold on eBay, well you can sell everything and anything. You can sell your old pink rubber shoes, free complimentary key chains from a trip to a museum, your grandfather’s shirt, a Volkswagen beetle, or even your dot matrix printer.

Before you sell online and make money on eBay, you should first read the terms and conditions involved upon your registration. This is very important since actual trade is going to happen if your item is going to be sold and purchased by another user. Also, reading the terms and agreements of the website protects you from possible fraud and bad experiences when dealing with other users.

Although eBay is the most efficient way of making money online, you are not restricted to eBay. What if you are a natural born businessman who wants to tap the internet as a business mechanism? Of course, it is possible. You can create your very own online store!

An online store is one of the few other procedures to sell online and make money. Many other companies hold the internet as the most cost effective way to sell their products. But first, you should be able to consolidate all the necessary items and aspects that you will need in setting up an online store. You should have a list of the products to sell, a web portal, a financial instrument and good computer facilities such as servers and internet connection.

When your online store is up and running, you can expect to have various forms of sale transactions. There are some customers who can order online but will need to request for a specific store procedure. Some considerations are delivery of the product, after sales support, payment options and online general inquiries. You should anticipate all these types of concerns beforehand if you are going build your online store.

The experience to sell online is one of the great ways to do business electronically. Because of the relative ease in usage of internet facilities and a wide coverage of global connections, you will be on your way to earn high profits to sustain your daily spending needs.

This is a guest post: Yoshi Kundagawa is a freelance journalist. He writes about entrepreneurs and working from home. You can read his articles about sell online and make money at his blog.

There are a number of legal ways to make money online. Some are short term with limited gains and other are long term with big payoffs.

If you are good at writing, you can make money writing a blog. A number of sites provide free blogs and will pay you, depending on the number of people viewing your blog. The best bit is you do not need a dime to start and you don’t need any web design skills. The beauty of blogging is that there is no set topic and you can write about whatever is closest to your heart or what ever you have a good grasp of. Some people find blogging very therapeutic and some sites allow you to add Google Adwords, so you would be able to earn more money from people clicking on them.

Submitting articles for money is another legal way of making money online. There are a number of sites where you can submit your articles and they will happily pay you for them.

A number of auction sites are available. Take eBay, for example, you can make money by selling your unwanted stuff and using the money to buy some more stuff that you can sell off at a profit.

Answering surveys online is a great way of making money online. You can answer questionnaires for market research companies and they pay you for it. Although answering surveys is an easy and interesting way to make money online, one should make sure that the company is reputable since there are a number of rogue companies that will have you answer surveys and not pay you.

Working for others online is a great legal way of earning money. The number of people telecommuting has increased and companies find it more acceptable to employ telecommuting employees. A number of forum owners need people to post and make conversation to keep the forums busy to make them attractive to more visitors, so you could get paid to chat and facilitate conversation. You could be employed as a moderator, making sure all posts are under the right topics as well as removing any obscene posts.

Being a virtual assistant is another legal way of making money. A number of companies get a lot of emails so you could be involved in selecting which mail goes to who as well as answering some simple questions. You will be the first line of support for a company. You could be answering live help and dealing with simple problems and referring more complex ones to someone else for closer scrutiny.
Researching could be a legal way of making money online. A number of companies employ people to compile certain chunks of information for them. Certain busy people could employ you to find certain things for them. A busy executive might want to know where to get a certain dress for her daughters play, you would look for which site has them and pass on such information. This saves them time and they, in turn, pay you for the service.