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#JobSearch : Lost Your Job? First Steps First. Great Ideas to Get Through the Unemployment Period.

September 19, 2022/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Nothing is more worrisome than being out of work and dreading the bills coming in the mail that you can’t afford to pay. Scarier yet is not having funds for job shopping (gas money or interview clothing). Here are some ideas to help you get through the unemployment period and make time without a job work to your advantage.

Your full-time job while unemployed is applying online for jobs. Once you lose your job, you should immediately research your state’s unemployment benefits options. In some states, a two-week waiting period must be reached before application; in other states, you may be eligible on the first day of unemployment. You must file for the benefits. In most states, you may do so online via an Internet-based application. The state will require forms completed pertaining to the circumstances leading to the job loss. Be truthful. If you were fired, state the honest reason. Not all states deny unemployment benefits for being fired unless the termination was for extreme reasons (e.g., embezzlement, equipment destruction, theft, avoidable OSHA-related safety incidents, or vandalism).

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know? First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

Article continued …

Regardless of the waiting period, the employment commission in each state is one of the best places to search for a new job. Many companies post job openings to comply with the EEOC mandate for the 3-5-day public posting of positions, and they can do so for free. The state also supplies job listings within an easy commute to your city and surrounding areas.

Apply directly to public job openings – some companies will allow resume uploads into their Automatic Tracking Systems (ATS), even if there are currently no job openings (this is called ‘resume farming’ by recruiters). Alternatively, apply online by uploading your resume to proprietary resume databases, e.g., Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Indeed, or USAJobs.gov (resume loading for the job seeker).

You don’t want a blank space on your resume where you were unemployed if you can avoid it. Recruiters are not fond of seeing extended periods of unemployment (the UNNA syndrome – Unemployed Need Not Apply). However, after the 2009 housing crash and the COVID pandemic, they are more used to seeing these phenomena of long periods of unemployment. The good news is that there are two rich opportunities to add content to your resume, allow you to meet new people, and network for new employment opportunities.

First, offer your time or assistance to non-profit organizations or obtain training to enrich your job skills. Many small non-profit organizations (NPSs) are desperate for grant writers, volunteers, mentors, and specialists. There is a shortage in these skills for many small NPOs who can’t afford to pay salaries for these job skills – your local paper may run lists of NPOs needing assistance.

Second, if you can’t do the education or training and can’t offer assistance as a volunteer, the next best activity is to go into business for yourself as a consultant. Shop the market for companies needing your skill set as a 1099 consultant (a local city business license may be less than $50). You never know when your skills sets may turn into a more realistic method to replace that lost salary. Recruiters will note you didn’t let the dust settle after a job loss and view you as a more viable candidate.

While you are unemployed, get the training (or education) you didn’t have time to take while you were working, and add industry or trade certifications to the achievements on your resume. Take classes to advance your education beyond the courses or degree you last achieved. There may be inexpensive adult education classes in your city that provide insight into a fresh new topic for you. Computer skills are one of the hottest training needs in any industry. If you gain insight into how software or a process works, it will move you ahead of the job’s competition.

As you achieve the training, education, or volunteer work, add it to your resume as the most recent ‘employment’ activity. The longer you are unemployed, the more obvious the non-productive activity and the less viable a candidate you become to recruiters. Filling that gap with volunteer activities, education or training, and/or part-time consulting work demonstrates you are still a viable and highly qualified candidate.

FSC Career Blog Author: Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., is an associate of First Sun Consulting, and the owner of D. Boyer Consulting – providing resume writing, editing, and publishing consulting services. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or http://dboyerconsulting.com.

Bio: Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D., manages and operates a consulting firm in Norfolk, Richmond, Colonial Beach (Dahlgren), and Gloucester, VA. Her background is 24+ years in the Human Resources field, of which 12+ years are within the Federal & Defense Contracting industry. She is the author of 940+ books on business, human resources research, career search practice, women’s studies, genealogy lineages, and adult coloring books. Her books are listed on Amazon.com under her author’s page for Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D.

FSC Career Blog | September 19, 2022

#Leadership : 18 Tools That Saved Time and Grew My Business…These Affordable Tools and Apps Helped this Entrepreneur See Marked Growth Throughout 2016.

October 10, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

We’re getting closer to the end of the year. It’s been a very exciting year for me achieving most of the goals that I’ve set so far. And of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of some tools that have provided great shortcuts.

The tools shared in this post fall under three categories:

Tools that helped me apply a simple productivity system.
Tools that saved me time by paying less money.
Tools that had an impact on my business growth.

Are you ready? Let’s tackle these:

Tools for my productivity system.

There is a system that I’ve been following for more than a year now that has had a great impact on my business. It’s composed of three simple steps:

Plan the right way.
Start the day right.
Take action with focus.

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You could check my previous post here to learn more about it, How This 20-Year-Old Built His Business While Studying Dentistry. And if you plan to implement it, check out this checklist.

Here are the tools:

Google Docs: A great tool I use to do all the planning for the tasks I want to accomplish.
Wunderlist: Helps me create to-do lists on the go and great for doing tomorrow’s to-do list.
Accomplish: It helps me easily create my schedule for the day. This is my best calendar app that suits all my needs.
Clear focus: Taking action with focus hasn’t been easier with the help of this great tool.
7 Min Workout app: Not only does this app have the normal seven minute exercise, but also it have many different variants with different durations
Headspace: A gem tool that changed my focus throughout the day.
Freedom Journal: One of the best journals. I like their app which reminds me to write in the journal in the morning and at the evening.

Tools that saved me time.

Usually, these are resources where I pay a few dollars to save me time or resources where I could save a few minutes by grouping tasks together.

Upwork (formerly known as Odesk): This is not a tool but it is a great way to get low-value tasks done leaving me time to focus on higher value tasks.
99designs: I’m sure you know how time-consuming design work can be. When redesigning my logo, I spent a ton of time trying to communicate my vision to designers only to receive concepts I wasn’t happy with, which ate into other projects. Using 99designs, I was able to save a lot of time because of the great amount of designs I get. I pick the one I like, ask for reiterations till I like it and then pay.
Thrive content builder: Having a great design that attracts the attention of new readers is very hard. I used to outsource this job, but with this tool, I don’t need to.
Auto Text Expander chrome expansion: Great tool to share common sentences without typing them out completely.
Buffer extension: Publish on all my social networks without entering them one by one.
Pocket: Save important posts that come your way to read them on the weekends.

Tools that helped my business grow.

There are a few tools which help you increase your business growth without much work on your end. These are the tools that helped me do just that this year:

Thrive Leads: This tools helped collect more emails from my website without spending time messing with the code.
SumoMe: It provides you with a great set of tools. I like to use the share, content analytics and heatmap tools. Did I mention it’s free? I’m doing just fine with the free version.
Active Campaign: Creating automation with ease to convert new subscribers and customers has never been easier. Forget infusionsoft with its complexity and the hefty price you pay initially and monthly. You pay a fraction of that with Active Campaign.
Optimizepress: Started using it lately after all the buzz I heard. It deserves every penny of the $97 I paid for it.
Buzzsumo: Great tool to help me identify popular topics and posts in my “industry +” who are sharing it.

There are many tools out there but these are the ones that had the most impact on my business and my life so far in 2016.

Entrepreneur.com | October 7, 2016 | Ahmed Safwan

#Leadership : 7 Ways to Master Poise Under Pressure…The reality is Business isn’t Always in the Flow of Success. Heartbreak, Hardship & Challenge Occur that are Largely Out of Your Control. It’s Just the Nature of the Beast.

June 16, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Business is full of challenge. There are going to be losses, heartbreaks, bad days, slow months and less-than-stellar years. For this reason, business always brings with it a certain amount of pressure. There is the pressure to succeed, the pressure to keep up with your competitors and the pressure to grow the business.

Like any great athlete under this type of stress, you must manage yourself well and show grace under fire. You must be able to manage your emotions well enough to stay calm, mature and rational amidst stressful or problematic circumstances. When under intense stress it is natural to feel panicky, but to have poise under pressure you must learn to harness fear and panic through training yourself to possess self-control.

1. Take a moment.

It’s incredibly effective to take a step back when feeling stressed and just breathe. Oxygen helps the brain process emotion. When you are in fight or flight, your brain receives less oxygen, as you tend to take shorter and more shallow breaths when under stress. When you force yourself to take a moment to take a few deep breathes before reacting, you counteract your body’s natural reaction to your stressful situation. When you inhale deeply and exhale slowly it grounds you to this very moment allowing you to slow your thinking down. As increased oxygen floods the brain your thoughts become more rational. Breathing calms your heart rate, which becomes naturally accelerated by the flood of adrenaline into your bloodstream. As you allow your breath to slow things down, you will feel more calm, collected and graceful. You are lift out of feeling like the current situation is a threatening emergency and are able begin thinking about resolutions.

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2. Choose your thoughts.

In order to establish a sense of self-control you have to force yourself to think positively about your situation. Learn to focus on solutions, not problems. This helps you not to react negatively in high-pressure situations. Self-talk is a great way to get yourself to calm down and to start thinking rationally. The brain responds immediately to solution-focused thinking. The natural reaction to challenge is to feel defeated or distressed. Tell yourself there are solutions for every problem and begin the process of thinking of what those could be, or even better take a minute and jot some thoughts down. Tell yourself that you have the experience, skill and instincts to handle the issue you’re dealing with. Be mindful to stay away from using negative words like; “can’t,” “won’t,” or “impossible. Train yourself to look at the positive perspective of; this situation is not happening to me it’s happening for me, to keep yourself cool under the pressure of uncertainty.

3. Be an example.

Whenever you are in a leadership position, one way to stay composed is to remember you always have an audience. Your team members and other colleagues expect a certain level of integrity and grit from you as their leader. You are their example. Train yourself to keep in mind that you are being looked at as an example for how to behave in all situations, but especially high-pressured circumstances which call for your resiliency, intelligence and the ability to stay calm. Knowing you have an audience acts to anchor your chaotic emotions and also serves as a strong motivator to practice self-management under stressful circumstances. Your colleagues, friends, and family members can all draw positive perspectives from you when you handle high-pressure situations with maturity and self-control.

4. Emulate a role model.

If you cannot figure out a solution, look to the mentors you have in your life and generate what you think they would do in your current dilemma, or imagine what they would advise you to do. Every great leader should have a leader who has led them. In generating the idea of what this role model would do or how your role model would handle your current challenge you naturally begin to get out of your own reactive emotions and into the mind of another and solutions will begin to generate. Emulate how you think they would react and respond. Taking these types of cues has an instant calming effect on a chaotic mind. It also puts you in a place to want to impress and do well. We never work harder for anything than for the admiration of our uppers, peers, coaches, or mentors.

5. Brainstorm.

When you’re feeling stressed, be proactive. Train your mind to ask questions out loud. As you hear yourself ask yourself the best way to fix or overcome your problem you start the natural process of brainstorming and quick solutions begin to surface. It’s even better to brainstorm with your team. As all of you put your minds together and share input, suggestions and ideas, things begin to calm down because the focus has moved to finding ways through or around the problem from being stuck in the problem. Brainstorming takes your focus off the pressure and allows you to be graceful in your efforts to make things better.

6. Focus on the big picture.

The hardest thing not to do when you’re feeling pressured is to catastrophize your situation and imagine every possible horrible outcome that could possibly come from a failure right now. Train yourself to view the current high-stress situation as an individual or isolated issue. This will help you control your urge to project your thoughts onto what could happen going forward. This helps you stay focused on the dilemma at hand. Keep in perspective that this one issue, in the realm of all possibility for your future, is not that big of a deal. This is simply a time of reinvention, reorganization, recalculating, adjusting and starting again. When you can look at the bigger picture and feel its vastness it brings a calming quality to your mind as you realize that where you are at and the pressure you are currently under is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new solution to a temporary problem.

7. Visualize the positive.

When pressures are intense it is easy to only visualize all the negative that is happening or could happen if this problem isn’t solved. To stop this type of doubt and emotional chaos take a moment and close your eyes. Focus on the mental image of what you would like the outcome to be. Imagine the problem has already been solved and you have moved through this situation in the best way possible. Visualize and experience the emotional satisfaction and success you feel as you see yourself succeeding and moving past this issue. It is well worth it to take time in this way to direct your thoughts towards a successful resolution. When you can visualize yourself at the finish line and see the success, you will naturally feel calmer. You will have more faith and feel better prepared to take on the adversity at hand.

The reality is business isn’t always in the flow of success. Heartbreak, hardship and challenge occur that are largely out of your control. It’s the nature of the beast. This makes it important to know what to do during the more challenging times, as well as the good times. It’s easy to celebrate and pop the champagne when your numbers are climbing, but it also needs to be as easy to react deliberately and calmly when the obstacles come.

Entrepreneur.com | June 16, 2016 | SHERRIE CAMPBELL

Your #Career : 6 Tips to Successfully Transition From Your Day Job to Your Own Business…Many of you Reading this Right Now are Working for Someone Else — Helping Someone else Build their Dream. But you Probably have a Dream of your Own that Thrills & Excites You.

June 11, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

If you’re like most people, you have two main worries holding you back from making the leap:

“How will I replace my day job income?”

“I have an idea for a business, but no idea where to start!”

You are not alone, and you don’t have to hold yourself back anymore. Here are six tips to help you get your dream in motion:

1) Don’t ask what the market needs.

Instead, ask, “What can I provide that I love doing?”

And don’t get discouraged by the idea that there are already lots of people doing what you want to do. That would be like saying, “Oh, Michael Jackson’s already done pop. No one ever needs to write a pop song again.” Write your pop song.

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2) Clearly identify the gap you’re filling.

Different products and services resonate with different types of people. Similar products and services presented in a different way or to a different audience will also resonate with different types of people. Maybe you’re a financial advisor. What makes your approach, experience or process different?

One thing that already makes you different is you! Shine your values, purpose and lived experience in your marketing. If you aren’t certain of your values and purpose, my free ebook will help you uncover them.

3) Create a big picture vision of what you want.

Have a clear vision of:

The number of clients of you will attract;
Type of clients;
What your life looks like having a full time business doing what you love;
How you feel;
How much money you are making;
How you connect with your clients;
What you do in your spare time.

Focus on this vision as you move forward.

4) Make decisions for where you want to be.

Refer to your big picture vision. Imagine yourself there. Feel the energy of that ideal life and business. Ask yourself, “What would the me of my envisioned future decide?”

When you make decisions from a mindset of success and fulfillment, you inevitably attract and create success and fulfillment.

5) Hire someone to guide you, step by step.

Look for someone who has already achieved a life and business similar to what you see in your big picture vision. They can help you determine your short and long term goals, and plan practical steps to achieve them.

Make sure the person you hire truly resonates with you. There can be many different ways to achieve what you want. Just because a particular path worked for one person, doesn’t mean it will be right for you. Listen to your inner voice. Trust your instincts.

6) Build your dream at a pace that feels right.

When you feel you have enough clients on the side, and a financial cushion your are comfortable with for emergencies, you’ll know you’re ready to take that final leap out of your day job and into your orgasmically joyful life and business.

The only “right time” to do it is the time that feels right to you.

I know, first hand, how scary it is to take the leap out of your day job to create your own business. I also know how incredibly joyful and fulfilling it is to spend each day doing something you love. If you truly want to change your life, you can. And I promise you, it is worth it!

entrepreneur.com | June 11, 2016 | Melissa Dawn

#Leadership : 10 Ways to Become Luckier in Business…Fact is, Luck is Really about Chance: The Chance of Something Good Happening. If you Make yourself Available to New People & New Opportunities — You’ll be Rewarded for It. It’s Really Pretty Straightforward, Actually.

June 10, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Do you believe in luck? I don’t, not really. Not in the conventional sense anyway. I believe it’s entirely possible to create your own luck. You can become luckier, absolutely. Because fact is, luck is really about chance: The chance of something good happening. If you make yourself available to new people and new opportunities — you’ll be rewarded for it. It’s really pretty straightforward, actually.

Here are my strategies for creating all the luck you need to become a successful entrepreneur.

1. Be the last guy standing.
If you pursue your dreams long enough, opportunities will come your way. So be persistent. Don’t give up. Do what it takes to stay in the game. No one becomes successful overnight. As Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy, advises: Hang in there.

Related: Forget Four-Leaf Clovers. Successful Entrepreneurs Make Their Own Luck.

2. Be ready.
When opportunities do come your way, you need to be able to leap into action. The only way to become ready is to train. Practice makes perfect. If you do something over and over again, you’ll get better at it. (The fact that insanity is similarly defined is not coincidental. You need to be a little insane to become an entrepreneur.) By “ready,” I mean both mentally and physically. So invest in yourself. Education is the best way I’ve found how.

3. Dump haters.
Surround yourself with people who share your goals and aspirations, support you, and are unafraid of your success. You’ll change. They will too. Friends you can grow with are priceless.

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4. Be stable.
If you’re financially strapped, there’s a good chance you’ll make decisions too hastily. Desperation is never an asset. Because like I said, time is on your side. It’s one of your greatest allies. Taking a job just to pay your bills doesn’t define you. Don’t get down on yourself. If it’s enabling you to pursue your dreams, it’s part of your plan.

Related: How and Why You Need to Make Your Own Luck

5. Be discerning.
When an opportunity presents itself, think long and hard about how it fits into your long-term plan. Sometimes walking away from an opportunity is the very best action you can take.

6. Always do the math.
What’s the opportunity? What are the risks? What’s it going to cost you? What’s the revenue potential? Basically, is it financially sound? These are basic questions you need to answer. It’s okay to take risks. You’ll need to. But fundamentally any business model you engage with must be sound and the only way to determine that is through your own analysis and evaluation.

7. Have faith in yourself.
You can’t do without it. Because at the end of the day, the only thing you can truly count on is your belief in your ability to handle any problems that come your way.

8. Stay curious.
Read as much as you can. Make new friends. Successful people are students of the world at large. You can’t stick your head in the sand and focus so intently on your goals you effectively have blinders on. Always be asking questions.

9. Network relentlessly.
Everywhere you do business, every person you meet, and everywhere you go… be present and open. You never know. Opportunities emerge from the unlikeliest of places. Let people surprise you.

10. Help others.
If you give of yourself, people will give back to you. So make the effort. Along the way you will build an invaluable team of professional supporters. People will remember your generosity. And in turn they will bring opportunities your way.

A lot of what creating your own luck boils down to is seeing the big picture for what it is. Being patient. Being kind. There will be many obstacles along the way. But as one of my favorite authors Ryan Holiday says, those obstacles are really actually opportunities. Your attitude is everything.

Entrepreneur.com | June 10, 2016 | Stephen Key

#Leadership : 7 Leadership Tips When The Business Is Struggling…Working 24 Hours a Day, Losing your Cool, & Falling Back to a No-Risk Strategy are Not Conducive to Long-Term Success.

April 22, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

It’s easy for an E ntrepreneur, Manager or a CEO to feel like a leader when things are going well, but the challenge is to keep that confidence and drive in the face of economic downturns, business turnarounds, and stressful personnel situations. Working twenty hours a day, losing your cool, and falling back to a no-risk strategy are not conducive to long-term success.

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Are you ready for that really tough challenge?

I saw some practical tips for business leaders under pressure a while back in the book “The Outside the Box Executive,” by Richard Lindenmuth, a seasoned interim CEO, who has stepped in and revitalized more than his share of struggling companies. I’m convinced that his advice is equally relevant to early startups, where the challenges are legion and the path is far from clear.

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I agree with Lindenmuth that emotional intelligence and stability is a must in these environments. He calls it strategic empathy, which is sincerely focusing on the individual, but always with the big picture of the business as top of mind:

Expect anxiety on the team and deal with it directly. When things are not going well, or when the future is clouded with unknowns, expect to find people on the team who are scared and angry. You have to act quickly to communicate strategy, be the role model for calm, and stand up to outliers before the whole team becomes dysfunctional.
Let them say no, and actively listen to team input. Of course, no leader wants to hear negative views, but it’s important to show empathy and reach everyone on an emotional level, while containing your own emotions. People need to know that it’s safe to express their opinions. Once you get beyond the negatives, most people have real contribution
Focus on team members who will tell it like it is. In any organization you will find people who will tell you what you want to hear, or who are fighting for their own survival. Although you must listen at every level, the best leaders look carefully for that middle ground or middle manager that can see the big picture and effectively implement change.
Don’t send a representative in lieu of direct contact. Lack of your physical presence is read as detachment, or lack of leadership. Direct contact, to people at every level, is the best way to generate trust, respect, support, and action. A recipe for failure is assuming that you can deliver a message once, and get it passed down by subordinates.
If you see something broken, fix it now. Decisive action inspires confidence. People’s perception of your leadership and trustworthiness is directly related to your word-action alignment and behavioral integrity. Show them what you expect, and people will follow your example. If everyone is fixing problems with confidence, the business will prosper.
Everyone has to pull their weight in the same boat. Create an environment that encourages and rewards participation and progress, with no penalties for missteps. Define a common goal, such as improving the customer experience, and eliminate any contention between the internal towers of development, marketing, and sales.
Practice the eight out of ten rule. Generally, out of ten ideas, eight are not usable, but that’s the only way to get to those two good ones. So welcome all suggestions and praise every attempt, which will encourage more ideas. This may also be stated as the Pareto principle, where 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the efforts.

When the business is struggling, it also makes sense to bring in outside help for a fresh perspective. This could be a peer, or independent business advisor, ideally one who has been through a similar kind of struggle in their business. The best leaders put aside their pride and emotion, and listen carefully to guidance from outside the organization.

When real change is required in business, a unilateral top-down business leadership strategy is rarely effective. Successful CEOs and entrepreneursinstead listen, learn, empathize and include everyone in the challenge. With their leadership, and everyone invested in the company’s survival, the odds of success go up dramatically. Are you ready for that really tough challenge?

Forbes.com | April 21, 2016 | Martin Zwilling

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#Leadership : Top 15 Apps To Make Your Life Easier Everyday…..2015 was a Year of Huge Advances in the World of Apps. They’ve Gone from a “Fun” addition to a Smartphone to Being a Useful, Necessary & even Revolutionary Way of doing Business, Among other Things.

January 20, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

According to Apple, at the start of 2015, there were 1.4 million apps available for download and the 100 billion download mark was surpassed. In addition, by May of 2015, there were 40,000 new apps that were submitted to be released. With the abundant uprise in development and use, it has become almost impossible to spend time figuring out which apps are worth it and which are just not up to par.

I’ve broken it down and found some of the top business apps that will not only help you to be more organized, but could even change the way your business operates, saving you time and money.

Expensify: This app provides an easy to use interface that allows you to scan and categorize your receipts automatically. This app is clean and very intuitive.

Trello: If organization is your problem, Trello is your solution. This app allows you to keep up with ongoing projects without having to hop around to multiple places. You can even interact with others who are working on that project. According to Trello, “Trello is the free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone.”

GoToMeeting: This app was updated this year and it has made online meetings extremely efficient. It’s fast, reliable, and extremely simple to use, making it an ideal platform to hold meetings and conferences. If you’re always on the go or work with people in other cities, this is especially for you.

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Apple Pay: 2015 was the year it happened. We can now pay for goods and services with our iPhones. The security features are top-notch and since Apple partnered with Visa, Mastercard and American Express, it is widely accepted in a growing number of places.

Wordswag: Need a nifty little graphic to post online? Enter Wordswag. Take any photo, slap a cool font on it, and you’ve got a professional looking image to post on all of your social media sites. This app allows you to instantly create word art and images with text using their cool font and style options.

Office Mobile: The Microsoft Office suite is one of the most widely used bundles of software in the world. Now you can access it all on your phone, too! Microsoft released the mobile version of their Office Suite, allowing you to create and edit documents no matter where you are in the world.

IFTTT: This app hasn’t received the credit it deserves. It allows you to create your own personalized app by creating “recipes” that will alert you whenever you want. For example, if you want to be emailed every time the Lakers win a game, you could create that recipe. The options are endless and while it takes a little playing around with, it’s well worth it to have a completely customized alerting system.

Asana: This team management app allows you to easily communicate with your employees, no e-mails required. You can assign tasks, keep track of everyday, update projects, and have discussions with your team with the touch of a button.

TripIt: Traveling as you know it has changed for good. Who wants to sift through emails to figure out what flight they’re on, the hotel they’re staying at, and where to get their rental car? This app organizes everything into one place so that you can easily access everything you need. It also allows you to share your itineraries with friends and family, alerts you when other flights that might serve you better come up, and my favorite: helps you snag the best seat on the plane!

RescueTime: This is one of my favorite apps on this list. We are all guilty of spending too much time on social media, and it can be hard to resist. RescueTime holds you accountable by breaking down how you spend your time. It lets you set goals, shows you how much time you’re spending on social media, and even allows you to block certain sites if you’ve been on them for too long.

Square: This is one of the easiest payment systems you can get that requires almost no equipment, can be done from your phone, and is set up completely online. When you sign up for Square, you’ll be sent a small card reader that plugs right into your smartphone. You can send receipts via email and text messages, allow customers to leave tips, and the charge fees are extremely reasonable. This is also a great tool for your employees to use if they’re on the go and making point of sale transactions while out of the office.

Forbes.com | January 20, 2016 | Jennifer Cohen CONTRIBUTOR, I help executives & entrepreneurs boost productivity through wellness.

#Strategy : 5 Ways Remarkably Successful People Spend the Weekend…Weekends are a Great Time to ReCharge your Batteries & Have some Fun. Follow in the Footsteps of These Business Greats.

November 14, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Read on for ways very successful people spend their weekends so that you can incorporate them into your own.

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#Leadership : The Daily Habits of 19 High-Achieving CEOs …Success in Business & Life is All about Being Intentional About How you Use your Time.

September 3, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Think about the Most Successful People you Know. Chances are they Didn’t get Where they Are Because of a Lucky Break, but rather possess characteristics or a state of mind that sets them apart from people leading average lives.

Check out these quotes from 19 successful CEOs who credit simple daily habits for helping them get ahead in business and life.

1. Take a few 30-minute breaks to walk around the whole company and talk to people.

“Often I’ll overhear a problem that I didn’t know about that we’ll need to solve some day. And while [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][it may be] a bit nerve-racking to have the CEO running around asking questions at first, [you’re more] approachable over the longer-term as long as you don’t over-react.”

–Suhail Doshi, CEO of Mixpanel, an analytics platform for mobile and web that tracks 50 billion actions people take in applications per month to help companies gain insights into user activity.

2. Talk to at least one customer.

“I try to never let a day go by where I don’t speak with at least one of our current customers. No one is better equipped to let us know where our services are succeeding and failing, and where we can improve. This is also why we have a client success team, but hearing it directly from the horse’s mouth can provide greater context.”

–Michael Ortner, CEO of Capterra, a web service that has helped companies such as Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Home Depot find and purchase business software.

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3. Limit meetings.

“I never have more than five meetings in the average day and usually only two or three. The reason is I believe you can create a daily work life where you are too busy to grow. I spend much of the day just thinking about the business–the product offering, the sales and marketing strategy, the industry. Taking time to think about your business gives you the best chance of growing [it].”

–Matt Godard, CEO of R2Integrated, one of the largest independent marketing agencies in the country.

4. Don’t leave things for later.

“We tend to save the more complicated tasks for later, but that’s an efficiency killer. Solve things right away. This goes for emails too. Email still is the most used tool and by far preferable to phone calls. It has, however, the most undeveloped functions. Try to use the basic set of filters and sorting on your next batch of emails. It helps.”

–Serban Enache, CEO of global stock photo site Dreamstime.com.

5. Run to work and back.

“I bookend my day with exercise by jogging to the office and back. It’s a great way to clear your mind and get the creative juices flowing. Naturally you need a shower at work to pull this off and a reasonably short commute. It means exercise is built into each day, and it beats sitting in a car or a bus. Plus, audiobooks!”

–Jay Simons, president of software company Atlassian, which offers team collaboration products including JIRA, Confluence, Bitbucket, and HipChat, which are collectively used by more than 48,000 companies worldwide.

6. Wake up an hour early and stay up an hour late.

“I find that I have the most time for myself to think during the hours of the early morning as well as late at night. During the early morning, I often think about the priorities for the day ahead and what communications to the team I must relay in order to ensure everyone continues to be fully aligned and on the same page. Then, at night, as everyone else goes to sleep and the distractions of email and phone calls dissipate, I allow my mind the freedom to be fully creative and think bigger picture, exploring our organization’s vision for the future and the overarching path we will take to get there.”

–Tiffany Pham, founder and CEO of MOGUL, an award-winning technology platform for women.

7. Be willing to meet with anyone at any time.

“I meet with people–usually via phone and computer–at all times of the day and night. [It might be] 5 in the morning for meetings in India or Sunday night for meetings in Singapore. I find that without doubt the harder I work and the more flexible I am about meeting someone’s schedule, the more people I reach and the luckier I get.”

–Eric Frankel, founder and CEO of AdGreetz, a cloud-based SaaS platform that empowers brands such as Intel, NBC, and Toyota to deploy relevant, personalized video messages.

8. Work your to-do list.

“In the morning or the night before, I write down a to-do list, a sort of priority of what I intend to accomplish that day. As the day progresses I scratch off items completed and open room for others. I find this helps me keep focused on the most important goals and not lose sight of what I primarily intended to accomplish that day.”

–Payman Taei, CEO and founder of Visme, a DIY online tool that has empowered over 200,000 businesses and nonprofits create better presentations and infographics. He is also the founder of HindSite Interactive, an award-winning web agency that helps companies improve their online presence.

9. Work out hard every day.

“I’m driven when it comes to sports and fitness. I have a regular 5 a.m. workout consisting of Insanity, Asylum and a five-mile run regardless of where I am in the world and the time zone. Since so much of my job is unpredictable, the workout helps keep my mind and body fresh and at least I have a predictable start to my day.”

–Don Joos, CEO of global telecommunications company ShoreTel.

10. Be a servant.

“Once you get to any reasonable size, the team is running the company. Your job is to be a servant–to make sure people have the resources to do the job, to eliminate friction, and to drive the strategy that sets everyone up to succeed.”

–Greg Schott, CEO of MuleSoft, a software company valued at $1.5 billion.

11. Don’t be afraid of failure.

“The biggest mistake any leader can make is to avoid taking risks because they are afraid of failing. It’s best to fail fast, quickly learn and re-do versus wasting years in trying to perfect and losing a key opportunity. And, sharing the failures with your team is even more important as you build a culture that fosters out-of-the-box thinking without obsessing about the worst-case scenarios.”

–Faizan Buzdar, CEO of Convo, an enterprise-mobile messaging and collaboration platform used by 15,000 businesses and 25 percent of the Fortune 500 companies.

12. Leverage all of your staff.

“Understand that you and your sales personnel don’t necessarily have all the knowledge in the world. Constantly ask the company staff and external advisers, ‘How else can we be bringing value to prospective customers?’ There are always new clients and revenue models that can be explored and a holistic approach to BI and BD can provide substantial results.”

–Joel Zamel, CEO and founder of Wikistrat, which operates a global network of more than 2,000 subject-matter experts specializing in national security and geopolitics, operating on a virtual platform to conduct wargaming simulations and data modeling for enterprise clients.

13. Be a collector.

“I have always had a love for one-of-a-kind collectible action figures. It’s a great passion of mine. Maybe it’s something I do subconsciously to connect to my inner kid. It’s a great reminder to maintain a degree of levity and balance.”

–Moshe Hogeg, founder and CEO of Mobli Media, a technology company that creates products leveraging crowd-based activities that benefit people through content sharing and social media.

14. Exercise during your break.

“Science has told us countless times that sitting at a desk all day will doom our bodies to eternal suffering and not only will getting up and moving around during the day significantly lessen the damage, it also boosts productivity. Instead of simply taking my lunch break to eat food in another chair, I make sure to duck out at least three times a week to get my limbs stretched and my blood pumping. My personal favorites for this are a 45-minute spin class or cross-fit training.”

–Shaul Olmert, CEO and co-founder of Playbuzz, a free online content platform that enables publishers, marketers, bloggers, and brands to create, distribute, and embed quizzes, polls, lists, and other content on websites, social pages, or mobile apps.

15. Have pointless conversations.

“Especially when it comes to the fast-moving tech industry, it’s easy to fall into a trap where urgency takes over and every conversation, interaction, or meeting has to fulfill a particular purpose. While staying focused and effective is important, I’ve found it’s equally important to take the time to have pointless or no-action-item conversations with people about how they are doing and what’s going on in their lives. This is key in building a strong bond with the people in your company, but equally important, it allows you to learn more about the people you’re working with, and knowing what makes them tick will make you a more successful manager.”

–Tomer Bar-Zeev, co-founder and CEO of ironSource, a global technology company that helps developers connect with users across devices and platforms.

16. Cross things off the to do list, but don’t delete them.

“I was keeping a Google doc and just deleting things of the to-do list. However, it was difficult to feel a sense of accomplishment, especially on days when the list actually grew longer. I find that when you cross items off the list, and don’t delete them until the end of the day, that you see the progress and feel the satisfaction of moving forward.”

–Eric Narcisco, founder of Effective Coverage, a national online renter’s insurance site that recently launched a mobile platform for buying renters insurance via a partnership with Traveler’s.

17. Meditate every morning.

“I begin each morning with an hour of deep meditation. I’ve learned to remain calm when the world strikes a stressful blow, which happens frequently as a businessowner. It’s amazing how much easier it is to lead a ship through stormy seas when the captain is calm and confident. I can’t imagine my life or running a business without meditation.”

–Jeremy Hallett, CEO of online term life insurance company Quotacy.

18. Go out for coffee several times a week.

“I don’t even like coffee but it’s a great excuse to go out and meet people I can learn from, and hopefully, who I can then help in return. My network is the most important asset I have, but I have to work it by getting out of the office and meeting people. It’s how I raised $1.2 million in funding and met some of our big-name clients.”

–Kristi Zuhlke, co-founder and CEO of KnowledgeHound, a market research data retrieval and visualization technology that serves large consumer brands like Pepsi and Procter & Gamble.

19. Listen to podcasts.

“Every night I listen to podcasts that feature ideas on entrepreneurship, interviews with successful founders, or industry news. I’m a huge believer in lifelong learning, and I find these podcasts to be incredibly helpful in sparking new ideas, inspiring me to improve, and learning from the mistakes of others.” (His favorite: The Startup Podcast.)

–Matt Mickiewicz, co-founder of online IT recruiter Hired.

What daily habits help you succeed in business and life?

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

PUBLISHED ON: SEP 2, 2015

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#Leadership : 3 Steps That Make A Real Difference In #Training Your #Team…Your Company’s Training Process Doesn’t Have to be Highly Structured or Complicated. Instead, try Creating a Framework that Evolves Organically from your Culture & is Flexible enough to Work with Any New Addition to your Team.

August 8, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

For any growing business, hiring is always a process that must remain top-of-mind. There’s no doubt that hiring the right person from the onset is immensely important, but many overlook the impact that training has on the long-term success of any new employee.

Training is one of those things most managers/entrepreneurs don’t pay much attention to during the early days of the business. After all, you and your key team members are too busy creating a product, process and culture on the fly to institute a formal training program. It’s only after your hard work begins to pay off and the business begins to scale that the need for a formalized approach to training all of your new hires becomes acute. I experienced this firsthand earlier this year, when it became clear that our team needed to expand significantly to keep up with increasing customer demand.

Initially, my team and I dove right into the process of getting new hires up to speed on our immediate needs. Often, very little attention was paid to helping the new team members understand the larger initiatives at play. Naturally, this approach led to problems. Our new hires were confused about the bigger purpose behind their work, and the established executive team grew frustrated with projects misaligned to their needs and expectations.

We had to change to successfully navigate this period of rapid growth. We needed a framework that was flexible, robust and quickly implemented. To solve for this, my team and I developed a 3 step process for onboarding and training new hires.

Start with culture.

The level of skill that someone brings to the table is incredibly important, but it isn’t necessarily what makes someone successful. Specific skills can be learned and honed over time, but the need to mesh with a company’s culture comes up almost immediately. That’s why we spend the first few weeks on the job helping them acclimate to the culture that make our company unique. Rather than force someone to sit through a presentation about mission and values, we try and have new hires experience them firsthand. They spend time with our customers, partners and founding team. During this time, we reinforce the idea that we want to work with people we trust, respect and admire — setting the stage for long-term success.

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Assign a mentor.

Team members get a mentor who is tasked with making them successful. This way, we’re able to foster strong relationships across the organization and create an environment where people are invested in each other’s success. Mentors are responsible for not only tactical training, but also long-term career development.

When it comes to assigning a mentor, we often try to pair up employees who have had minor conflicts in the past. It seems somewhat counterintuitive, but I’ve found that if a leader has a problem with another team member, the best thing is to create a situation where each person is forced to make the other successful. More often than not, this structure resolves any existing conflict and forms a much stronger bond over time. This process of setting aside issues and moving forward positively help to create a much more balanced, open, and successful team across all levels.

Follow up early and often.

Finally, we follow up with new additions to the team early on and continue meeting on a frequent basis thereafter. This high-touch approach ensures that no one ever gets too far off course at any point in time. I personally set aside a scheduled time each week for an open conversation with each of my direct reports and require them to do the same with theirs. These follow-up sessions don’t have to be time-consuming. Often, they happen while making a coffee run or over lunch. The important thing is that problems and questions are never allowed to fester. By being insanely proactive in this manner, we’re able to make sure people receive the feedback and support they need, exactly when they need it.

Your company’s training process doesn’t have to be highly structured or complicated. Instead, try creating a framework that evolves organically from your culture and is flexible enough to work with any new addition to your team. If you ensure that your new hires understand the company’s culture, are partnered with mentors who are deeply invested in their success and have frequent opportunities for feedback, you’ll find that you’ll develop a more balanced and successful team.

Chris Myers is the Cofounder and CEO of BodeTree, a web application designed to help small businesses manage their finances.

Forbes.com | August 8, 2015 | Chris Myers