Entries by First Sun Team

#Leadership : 10 Tips for Planning a Successful Company Conference…A Conference that Isn’t Planned Well can Impact your Career Like a Lead Balloon. If the Speakers Don’t Impress Attendees, or You Run Out of Food, It can be Talked About for Months Afterward…And you Might Shoulder the Blame, or at Least Share It.

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Planning a company conference can boost your career and visibility. It can strengthen company sales and morale, depending on its purpose. Conferences are complex, though, and can be tricky to plan. A compelling agenda and great speakers are a must. But so are food, comfortable seats and a myriad of elements behind the scenes. Think […]

#Leadership : Management is a Minefield- 10 Things the Boss Wishes You Knew…What Kinds of things Do Managers Wish Employees Better Understood? Here are 10 Things Bosses Wish Employees could Empathize with, to Realize that Being in Charge doesn’t Necessarily Mean that Every Day is a Picnic.

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If you’re a part of the rank-and-file, it can be hard to get inside the head of management or your company’s leadership team. They seemingly make decisions merely to anger or stir up the lower-level employees, and the boss can be amazingly inept or unable to respond to employees’ concerns. They can devise and deploy […]

#Leadership : Learn When to Delegate and When to Micromanage…Micromanaging has become a Dirty Word in the Corporate World. It’s used by Employees to describe Overzealous Managers, who Don’t Trust them to Perform the Simplest of Tasks without Constant Intervention.

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Certainly, no one wants to work for a boss, who allows them no freedom, and who doesn’t want them to grow and gain experience by facing new challenges every once in a while. Additionally, a boss who spends all of their time obsessed with tracking their team members’ actions is probably not making the best […]

#Leadership : A 3-Step Technique for Deciding Which Advice to Follow…If you Ask 10 People for Advice, you’ll Get 10 Different Prescriptions. You can’t Act on All of Them so Which Person Do you Listen To?

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Whether it’s getting the green light for a new venture or securing the next round of funding, entrepreneurs are constantly faced with the challenge of communicating their business ideas and plans with stakeholders – board members, advisers and investors. In addition to serving as a status update, stakeholder interactions are huge learning opportunities for entrepreneurs, […]

#Leadership : How We Survived Getting Sued in Our First Year of Business…When People Talk about Running or Starting a Business, Oftentimes they’ll say Something Like, “We Need to be Careful, so we Don’t get Sued.” But, Deep Down, they Don’t Foresee that ever Happening; and, Unfortunately, It does Happen. A Lot.

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Battling a lawsuit is hard work, but it is possible for a small business to fight and survive. Doing so will require planning, cool heads and a legal team that is the right fit for your business. With those factors in place, your business will be in a position to not only survive, but to thrive […]

Your #Career : 11 Mistakes Standing Between You and Your First Million (4 min read)…Becoming a Millionaire isn’t as Far-Fetched as You would Believe. With Dedication, Patience and Focus, Becoming a Millionaire is Completely Obtainable. If I can Do It, Anyone Can.

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I’ve been a millionaire three separate times in my life. The first time I saw $1,000,000 in my bank account, I almost fainted. Even though I knew it was hitting my account, it still caught me off guard. Becoming a millionaire isn’t as far-fetched as you would believe. With dedication, patience and focus, becoming a […]

#Leadership : Why You Should Hire People With ‘Slash Careers’…The “Slash Career” is all Rage with Millennials, and it’s Important for Employers to Pay Attention.

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You know what I’m talking about, right? “I’m a lawyer/writer.” “I work in marketing; I’m also a professional actor.” “I’m in tech, and I have photography business on the side.” In the last ten years or so, these slash careers and side gigs have been on the rise, and many motivated millennials have realized that […]

Your #Career : How To Make ‘I Just Got Fired’ Sound Better When You Interview…Interviewing when Fired is Strenuous, Because it Feels Like you Have to Justify yourself All the Time, But on the Plus Side, you’re Immediately Available, so That’s there’s That.

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Your answer should:  #1- Be true….#2- Help you advance in the interview process (or at least not stop you).  It’s very important to keep both of these things in mind. You should answer in a truthful way because it’s the right thing to do, but also because if your potential employer catches you lying before you even […]

Your #Career : Getting Fired Was Step 1 to Increasing My Pay 1,000% in 3 Months…”Gulp.” My Boss had just Told Me the Company was Going in a Different Direction when that Embarrassing Sound Squelched from my Throat.

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Though I had under $3,000 in savings and no immediate prospects, I wasn’t devastated. I was relieved. Movie: Office Space I’d been blogging for a premium men’s site for nearly a year. After writing four 800-word articles a day for months, I was burned out, bleary eyed and begging for the end. My heart had abandoned […]

#Leadership : How to Stay in Control of your Meetings…Meetings.  The Bane of Many of our Existence. They Suck Up Time and are Often Unproductive or Don’t Yield the Results we Expect.

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I want to talk about a specific type of meeting today — a Board Meeting — but this could easily apply more broadly.  A find many board meetings highly unproductive in that they are often just a date in the calendar where management is set to update its investors and other board members of its performance over the past […]