[Guest Post] Top 2012 Career-Motivating Apps for Business Women

Whether you’re on the job search or setting up a home-based business—there’s an app for that!

Regardless of if you’re a women looking for a job or a busy mom who’s chosen to start her own business working from home, it’s difficult to juggle it all—work, family, friends, and self care. Women haven’t earned the title “super” for nothing. Many have to do it all, and well, managing family responsibilities, a stellar career, and time for health as well. Thanks to technology, your smart phone can actually help you “do it all”—especially if you’ve downloaded what I like to call the following 6 Top 2012 Career-Motivating Apps for Business Women to your iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, or Android phone:

1. Elements – by Dropbox Labs ($4.99)

Have you ever experienced a “eureka” moment on the bus, in the car, or in the elevator leaving work? Now you don’t need a notepad to capture your brilliant ideas on whim, you can count on the Elements app to do it for you. The Elements app by Dropbox Labs, helps you conveniently organize your ingenious ideas into folders that you can share across multiple devices in cloud-style. So next time you get a brilliant idea, Elements be there to capture it and help you brag about it too!

2. Keynote ($9.99)

Sure, it’s a bit pricy for an app. However, when it helps you look and deliver your best business presentations—it’s worth it! The Keynote app is a presentation app designed for mobile devices. It helps you create PowerPoint presentations and add those hilarious animations, interactive charts, themes and transitions that CEO’s love so much. Just touch and tap the screen to have remote control over your entire presentation from start to brilliant finish.

3. Snapp! (Free)

Snapp is a business social networking app for collecting digital business cards instead of dusty paper ones that you’ll probably lose. Snapp is handy after a business networking event—such as a tradeshow, job searching event, or conference—and it will organize and store all of those little bit and bobs of paper that you collect throughout the day. Plus, when you add a contact to Snapp, it will generate an email with a message like: “It was a pleasure to meet you today. I look forward to collaborating further in the future.” And when you need a contact, simply click a button to access your contacts. Snapp will ensure you make a good impression on your business contacts every time.

4. Corkulous ($4.99)

A digital alternative to the cork bulletin board, Corkulous is a digital idea board app that collects, organizes, and shares your brainstorming ideas for you in a central location that offers team access. Use Corkulous to create a vision board, a to-do list, to set goals, and to share messages with your coworkers and collaborative teams.

5. Dropbox (Free)

I love Dropbox because it offers me and my team of freelancers a convenient way to access business files remotely. Because we all work from home, any member of my collaborative team can drop a file, even a huge file, in our company Dropbox account, giving everyone access on any computer, laptop, smart phone, or mobile device. Dropbox operates like a 2 GB flash drive, and it incorporates cloud technology for communicating and sharing information remotely.

6. Bento ($4.99)

Bento is an app that also lets you collect, organize, store and share information in database form. However, the benefit of Bento for a business owner or someone who works from home is that it’s a brilliant business finance aid. I use Bento to build business budgets, forecast financial goals, track invoices, manage expenses, map out project costs, etc. Plus, my accountant loves that I use Bento to manage my business finances too. It makes things a lot easier come tax time!

Bio: Jane Johnson is a freelance writer for Prepaid Reviews, the largest prepaid phone review site on the web that provides news, commentary, and over 20,000 consumer reviews of prepaid cell phone services like Net-10.

To Your Success,
Pamela

[Guest Post] Put Down the Dusty Encyclopedia, Get on Board with Social Media!

Today’s Guest post is submitted by University Alliance, on behalf of the University of San Francisco’s online program. Enjoy reading

Social media can be confusing or intimidating, even for those who are internet-savvy. Making sense of friends, followers, circles, and fans can require a little homework, but the effort is well worth it. Social media isn’t going away; in fact, it’s growing more powerful. Businesses can’t afford to ignore social media’s influence or dismiss it as pure entertainment.

Don’t Let Success Pass You By

Social media has become a powerful force in networking and marketing and continues to change the way that people interact with each other and with businesses. Those who got on board with social media early on have a distinct advantage as the space has become crowded. It’s harder to stand out and rise above the noise, but better late than never. Most consumers now expect businesses and brands to have a social media presence, so if you haven’t gotten started with social media, there’s no time to lose. Recent social media-spawned movements, such as the worldwide “Occupy” protests and the Egyptian uprising, leave no doubt about the power of this medium and the way that it has changed how people communicate.

Get Your Employees on Board with You
In order to get the most benefit out of your social media efforts and to prevent any potential issues, it’s best to lay the groundwork with employees up front. Social media should involve the entire organization so that all areas of the business have a stake in the game and can participate. To be a truly social organization, you need to allow or even encourage social activity both internally and externally. This is where a formal policy and training program can help.

Ideally, you should encourage your staff to express themselves, but provide a framework of acceptable usage of your company name, brand, and products or services. By clearly spelling out unacceptable usage and its consequences, you can help employees make good decisions about what they share socially. And if you’re thinking about simply blocking access to social sites at the office, you’re bound to be disappointed in the results. Not only will you foster dissatisfaction among employees, but with the ubiquity of smartphones, they’ll be able to access social networks anyway. The key is to educate your staff through proper social media training. Empower them to communicate effectively, eliminating disciplinary problems before they happen.

Help Your Clients Make Sense of Social Media
Social media is something that a lot of people like to talk about, but few can explain. Instead of trying to define social media or explain the different platforms and how they are used, you should help clients understand its value by illustrating how social media can be used to help them achieve their business goals. Case studies can be very effective in showing clients how other companies have built brand loyalty, manage their online reputation, inform customers of new products and services, or crowdsource solutions. Organizations as diverse as Dell, the FBI, Johnson & Johnson, and Zappos have used social media to accomplish all of these things, which proves that social media can be effective across all sectors. By showing clients what this social tool has done for others, you can help them understand it and believe that their company has potential for success as well.

Avoid Failure
In order to be successful with social media, it’s critical to start off on the right foot with realistic goals and expectations. It’s important to keep in mind that building a network means building relationships, which takes time. If you expect instant success, you are almost sure to be disappointed. Also, social media should be part of an overall marketing strategy, not something done in isolation. Using an integrated approach will yield the best results.

Effective social media campaigns should begin with the end in mind. Ask yourself how you plan to benefit from social media and then use this information to form the basis for the next step – developing a strategy. By knowing what you want to accomplish, you’ll be able to choose which social platforms will be most useful and develop content that fits your strategy.

Look to the Future
There’s no doubt that social media is here to stay. With search engines like Google and Bing incorporating social data into “social search”, the spotlight will continue to be on social media’s impact on search engine results and optimization. Search engines seek to provide users with search results that are the most relevant and helpful, and by leveraging social media data, they can gain unprecedented insight on individual interests and activities. By expanding their scope to include the people on a user’s social networks, they can create a very powerful picture of what search results would be most appealing and interesting to that individual. You can help improve your site’s search rank by incorporating social media in your search engine optimization efforts.

Fuel Business Growth by Learning How to Leverage the Power of Social Media
Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus can help your business reach customers directly, giving you the opportunity to gain insight into what customers think about your company. With social media, you can turn negatives into positives and engage your customers in conversation. This strategy will provide you with the loyal customer base you want and need. That loyalty will stem into future growth of profits and business.

This article was submitted by University Alliance, on behalf of the University of San Francisco’s online program. They offer a variety of master certificates and online marketing courses, which provide all the necessary tools to become more advanced in social media and internet marketing.

To Your Success,
Pamela Evbota

[Inspirational Monday] Turn a Jobless Situtaion to a New Lifestyle

The greatest tragedy for a man is not to have lived life to its full potential.

In recent times there has been an increase in unemployment rate especially in the banking sector. Due to the unhealthy work conditions in some banks, some people have voluntarily resigned their employments in these banks. I have been privileged to meet a few of these bankers and my first question is what next? I am surprised at their responses. Some are completely lost to what they would like to do next. Some want to go into the business sector but don’t know what to do. A majority are scouting for new jobs.

It is quite disheartening to see young intelligent women and men lost for what the next steps of their lives should be. These women have given the best of their intellect to grow businesses and portfolios within their organisations. They have increased their banks monthly and yearly balance sheet and yet they are lost as what to do with themselves.

Sometimes when we try to play the game of life too safe without wanting to take any risk we paralyse our selves and mortgage our future for the fear of the unknown.

My honest advise to any one out there who has just lost her job or resigned without having a plan B in mind is first to ask God for directions. Go on a mini retreat with a pen and a note book. Be sincere with your self and have an open mind. You will definitely come away with lots of ideas.

I am particularly pained become most women I know in the banking sector don’t really love their jobs as much as they love the money and comfort the money buys them. Their work- life balance scale is never balanced (No ones’ scale is ever really balanced in this area). They are in the office 90% of the time. Their kids are being taken care of by nannies and sitters( P. My best advice to any female banker out there cut up in this job cut situation is to take time off and have a soul search and decide for yourself what lifestyle brings you joy, fulfilment and financial joy.

Staying on safe harbour in a job that affects your ability to fulfil the other roles that you play in life just might not be the ideal life for anyone.

To help simplify the process, break down your life into the following areas

1. Personal Life

Are you completely satisfied and happy with where you are presently in your life?
If you would change a thing, what would it be?

2. Family Life

What is your relationship with your spouse, Children and family in general like?
How often do you spend quality time with your family? By quality time I mean sitting together, enjoying each other’s company not watching TV

3. Financial Life

How healthy is your financial life?
What is your net worth, assets and Liabilities?

4. Spiritual Life

How will you score your spiritual life?
When was the last time you spent quality time in prayer and mediation?

In all these areas sincerely ask yourself what you would like to change. Be clear on the lifestyle that will bring you more joy and follow that path.
Before you go to another job interview or start your own business, get crystal clear on the path that your soul is yearning for . Live your best live and live on Purpose

To Your Success,
Pamela Evbota

Are You Creating Your Own Economy……..?

I can’t believe it is already the middle of the first month of the year. A lot has happened in my neck of the woods in the past days. The country has been on a lock down literarily due to national strike action. There are various issues that have affected the economy for too long and our standard of living is on a constant down turn.
This is where you and I step in; it is said that the best economy is your own economy. The only way to have your own economy is to create one. How can you create your own economy if you do not have a goal or a plan? Have you been able to set some goals for the New Year? If not don’t waste any more time.

The goals you set are what will set the tone for you and help you enjoy a rich personal economy. These goals will give you direction and help you to channel your energy in a productive way daily.

I would like to share some of my plans with you. This year I will continue with my main message which is helping women discover and live a life of purpose in business. In line with this, I will be appearing in series of radio interviews and programs. As part of continuously creating awareness for my books I will be featured weekly in the Naijasista on air book club on www.inspirationradiong.com every Saturday. Also a radio station is requesting my up coming book content for their women’s program. I will be using every opportunity to promote my book and workbook with the aim of helping women create a new life style.

My publicist is working on school tours for my book ‘How to Raise Kids without loosing it’ published last December. The school tour is being planned with the main theme being parenting and quality family life. You would agree with me that no one can live a purposeful life without taking care of every issue that affect them as a family.
Also during the year I will be launching an online ecourse , more on that to come in my subsequent posts.
I want to re affirm that my message remains the same which is helping women discover and live their purpose and I will continue to promote this both online and offline through my posts, books, ecourse, radio interview and audios. I will be doing a lot of audios this year.

I look forward to reading your comments and contributions. And guest posts are encouraged and welcomed. Contact me on editor@ladiesnetworking.com for guest posts

To Your Success,
Pamela Evbota

[Guest Post] Finding a Work from Home Job

Today’s guest Post is from Career Step, a leading voice in online business education. Do enjoy reading and leave a comment
Just imagine how good life would be if instead of weaving your way through daily traffic to reach your office, all you needed to do was to walk a few steps to the next room.

What would it mean for your family if you had more time to spend with them? How impressed would your boss be to notice a sudden spurt in your productivity because all the time and energy you save on commute, meetings and idle office chat is now spent on actual work?

What about moms who never have it easy whether they decide to work or stay at home? What if these stay at home parents could care for their babies, while making a financial contribution and feeling mentally alive?

All the above situations may sound too good to be true, but they’re not. “Work from home” are the three magic words that can turn these dream situations into reality!

But before we go any further, it must be said that finding legitimate work from home opportunities may actually turn out to be harder than finding an office job. Why, you ask? Simply because for every genuine work at home job, there is scam waiting in the wings ready to make a meal of innocent folk.

So, here are some steps you can take to find real work from home job opportunities without falling prey to online scams:

Negotiate with your employer
The best place to start searching for home-based job opportunities is your current workplace. You may be surprised how receptive employers can be to the idea of working from home provided your profile allows telecommuting. They have as much to gain from it as you, so don’t hesitate to broach the subject with them.

Be honest about your situation and explain why you need to work from home. It’s possible that to begin with you will need to convince your employer of your trustworthiness. You can offer to telecommute for a couple of days in a week to start with and gradually move to a full-time work from home arrangement.

Change your approach to job search
Before you start looking for work at home opportunities, you should know that you may have to change your approach to job search.

Broad job search engines like Monster.com or Simplyhired.com are great for finding regular office jobs, but may not be very fruitful as far as work at home options are concerned. You should focus on websites that post work from home jobs or freelance opportunities exclusively.

You can also use keywords like “telecommuting,” “freelancing,” “consulting,” and “work from home” jobs on search engines like Google or Live to find work. However, be wary of the results that are thrown up as a lot of them could be scams.

Use the power of Internet to network

Internet is probably one of the best gifts of man to mankind! Cyber space is exploding with information and communication of all kinds and you can use it to your benefit when it comes to looking for home-based work.

Become a member of industry-specific discussion forums to network with professionals with similar backgrounds and interests. Some of these platforms may also host job listings, so that may work to your advantage.

You can also use professional networking websites like LinkedIn to connect with potential employers or recruiters. Make sure your CV is updated on such websites to harness best opportunities.

Get vocational training
At times, the field or the profile you’re in may not allow telecommuting. Does that mean you give up on your dream of working from home? Not necessarily. If you are willing to invest some time and little money into a vocational training program, it’s possible to start over.

This may work the best for people who are not the main breadwinners in the family as starting over would mean lower wages to begin with.

Some work from home options that can be explored after completing a vocational training program are in fields like medical transcription, medical billing and coding, graphic design, virtual assistance, legal transcription, technical writing, web development, etc.

Other work from home jobs like customer support, data entry, sales and telemarketing may not require specific training, but generic skills like communication, problem-solving, convincing power, typing speed, etc.

And if you’re lucky enough to have a talent for something like painting, photography, cooking, or music, you can turn your craft into a full time home-based business!

Just bear in mind that if you go out looking for home-based careers without any vocational trainingor experience, all you will find is trash!

About Career Step
Career Step is a leading vocational school with almost 20 years of experience in providing online career training specifically designed to help students acquire knowledge and skills needed to quickly transition to a successful career after graduation.

4 Steps to Achieve Success in the New Year

The Energy and zeal to achieve success in the New Year is still up in the air, why not cash in on this and hit the road running. When we set goals and don’t achieve them we move the due date forward until it is achieved or forgotten. As an entrepreneur and a business owner let this trend not be your line of action in the New Year.

It is easy to dream up ideas and see possibilities but the most important part is moving these wonderful ideas that could make a world of difference in our lives and business to the realities we desire to see. No matter how wonderful the ideas may seem there are four things that could hold us back from succeeding in the New Year

Running without a Goal – There are people who still believe they don’t need to have goals to achieve a purpose in business. Without a goal there can be no plan and without a plan all we have is busyness. Just because you engage daily in various task doesn’t mean you have a goal. With a goal you have a plan and how to achieve your plan. A goal gives direction and meaning to your activities.

A simple scenario is a football game. Without a goal post the players just roll the ball round the field and so there is really no purpose to the game and nothing to measure the players. If you measure with how often player posses the ball it is the same thing as saying how busy an entrepreneur looks in his business. But then you ask busy with what? How do these activities affect the business and how do you ascertain when you have achieved a purpose or goal when none was set in the first place. The importance of having a written goal and plan cannot be over emphasised. Without a goal there cannot be a yard stick to measure success.

Lack of Focus – Another factor that can hold back your success in the New Year is lack of focus. Without focus the best goals and plans in the world cannot be full accomplished. Find out what time of the day you are most productive and build your most important activities around this period. Make sure you are able to make maximum use of it. I have a friend whose product time is the midnight period. She is a blogger so when everyone is off to bed she is most productive. But the down side here is the fact that, she a wife as well as a mother. She cannot possibly go on for 7days in a roll to work at this period of the night with other aspect of her life having to pay for it. The best thing here is to be flexible. When your productive period is not realistically possible for you to put in the required work it is important you work on getting a time that will work better as a result of other factors in your life. The idea here is for you not to allow room for excuses to hold you back from achieving your business and personal goals.

Leaks and Time Drainers – Every one of us has got habits that take productive time from our already crowded schedules. Until you look closely you never really notice theses time drainer and leaks in your business. They are; continuous BB chat, email checking, unnecessary phone calls and chats. These activities alone can take at least 3 productive hrs off your day. The way to know for sure what your time drainers are is to list your hourly activities for at least a 3 hour period. What activities do you engage in? How often do you check your Smartphone for email or chats. Make a written list of these activities. You will be shocked how your time is spent. The first step is turning off the sound of the BB alert sound that way you are not tempted by every sound. When engaged in your productive hour, turn the face of the phone and take only important calls. This is a habit you need to develop. Set specific time of the day when you check your mails and social media accounts. Every mail is important I understand but you will succeed in distracting the flow of work when you are interrupted by every new mail and chat alert on your phone or on your computer. Turn off the email when using the computer. Learn to achieve maximum result for the time you are work on your business. When you manage your time wisely it shows you value your time and productive. To achieve your desired business success this year, it is important you eliminate all time drainers and leaks especially caused by technology gadgets.

Lack of Commitment – Without commitment from the first day you start to work on your plan, there may not be a celebration of achievement. Commitment leads to achievement. To show commitment write out your goals and achievement timeline and paste on the wall somewhere you can see it daily. This serves as a remainder of what you are committed to achieving in your business and Life.
Commitment is the glue that holds all our planning and visioning. Show up daily with commitment to achieve the activities you have lined up in your business.

To Your Success,
Pamela Evbota

A New Year and A New You

The New Year is a symbolic time for anyone to have a fresh start. It is the time when we can all literally wipe our slates irrespective of how our past has been and key into the energy, season and time to wish for a better start. It is quite important that we take time to write down what we want to achieve at this time. Do not be tempted to have it all in your head that, is actually the first step to non achievement and unsustainable progress and growth in a New Year. Remember that what is not written does not exist. The Vision, Plan or Goal you want to achieve for yourself this year must be written and well articulated to be achieved.
At the beginning of the year there are so many distractions, political and personal issues that compete for our attention. And if we are not careful we are blind sided for the better part of the year due to the fact that we did not strike our plans while the year was new.
Let the excitement that you feel or have about the New Year motivated you to acting on the vision that you have concerning the year.

Vision, Plan, Goals – What plans do you have that you will like to achieve in the coming year? How strong are they? Are the plans capable of moving you from where you are right now to a place you would like to be in a year, two or three years? Does this plan or Goal encompass all areas of your life – Your Spirituality, Business, Family and your personal growth? If the goal is too small and narrow it will not challenge/ motivate you. Make sure your Goal can stretch you. Let it be a Goal you look forward to working on with a bit of fear but excitement at it outcome and what it will do in your life.

Don’t Work Alone – There are always live events as well as online events and free resources available at this time that can help you plan your goals. Make plans to either attend an event and key into some free or paid ones online. What ever you do, don’t work in isolation. You may have done the same thing in the past year and did not achieve any meaningful result. Why not do it differently this year? If your goal/plan is that important to the success of your life it will be worth it to work with someone who take you to where you want to be. And most importantly, get an accountability partner.

The time to act is now – Do not waste any more time. If you are yet to write your plans for the year, now is the time to do so. Take a new note book and a pen. Choose a time and a place where you can be alone and start to write. The best place to start is where you would like to be in 12months, two years or three years. This is a Vision style. Work on a plan and how you will achieve this Vision. Break it down to things you can do in a month, weekly or daily. You will need to invest some quality time on this so you can have a clear plan from the very beginning. You can go the extra length and create a Vision Board out of it. I remember creating a simple Vision Board about a year and a half ago and I have achieved at least 80% of what I have on my board. The human mind is stimulated by Visuals. Take out pictures that speak to you and represent the Vision you have in mind.

Stay Committed – To achieve your goals this year and even surpass your plans, you must remain committed to your plans. In the next 3 weeks, the excitement and energy in the New Year will start to wear out and everyone will be back to business as usual. This is when commitment is most required. You must remember your big WHY and REASON to succeed. This is why it is important that you create a Vision Board. Your Vision Board will serve as a reminder of what need to be achieved.

Start making plans for your success in 2012 and beyond and if you do require any assistance I am just an email away. Do share your opinions; I look forward to reading your comments.

To Your Success,

Pamela Evbota

My first Virtual Book Tour

Join me on my Virtual Book Tour for my new book ‘How to Raise Kids without Loosing it’.
Dec 14 – http://www.businessplusbaby.com - Helen Lindop
Dec 15 – http://www.mynewhitman.com - Myne Whitman
Dec 16 – http://www.diaryofadesperatenaijawoman.blogspot.com/ – Bola Essien-Nelson
Dec 19 – http://www.abimboladare.com - Abimbola Dare Bimbyladsblog

Being a mother or a wife is loaded enough. Just top that with having a job or a business. All these roles can be pretty demanding and we are always expected to perform each task at 100%. The first step in keeping it altogether is knowing your strenght and when to ask for support.
‘How to Raise kids without Loosing it’ is written in an everyday story related manner where every reader can relate with the various situations as the writer herself.
Mothers !!! what is your identity outside of being a mother do you know what your identity is?

The book will be available online for purchase this week as well as on Kindle.
The physical books will be available for purchase in Nigeria Dec 16.
For advance purchase or request, please drop me a mail.
If you would like to have me and my book on your blog please drop me a mail as well

To Your Success,

Pamela

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